The Presbyterian Butcher: A History of President Gordon McSweeney
by Spiff's Oliphaunt
Summary: Originally created for AlternateHistory .com, this details the bloody rise, reign, and downfall of one of the most notorious mass murderers of all time, President Gordon McSweeney. Based on Turtledove's Timeline 191 / Southern Victory; Courtesy of Tanner 151 and HongCanucker
1. Chapter 1

_The following fanfic/alternate history is not my own, but a collaboration between_ _Tanner 151_ _and_ _HongCanucker_ _, the original version of which can be found_ _on Alternate History .com (to access it, delete the spaces in the following for the link_ www. alternate history discussion/ show thread. php?t=319250 _I_ _choose to post a spoiler free, edited version for fans of the Southern Victory series/TL-191 who have not yet finished the series._

 **The Presbyterian Butcher:**

 **A History of President Gordon McSweeney**

 **Chapter 1: The Formation Of Evil**

By the end of the Year of Our Lord 1947 the world had changed quite radically. Nearly eighty-three million lives were lost in the Second Great War from all across the Earth, although some historians predict it was over ninety million. The horrors the Axis Powers committed against the countries and peoples of the Allied Nations and the Comintern were unspeakable and horrifying. It is estimated nearly thirty million people died in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany and Patriotic United States alone during the conflict. With the devastation having ended, the Confederate States of America, the British Empire, the Japanese Empire, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had become the world's superpowers, with the CSA and Britain attaining nuclear capabilities by war's end.

The names of Adolf Hitler, _Führer und Reichskanzler_ of the Greater German _Reich_ and Gordon McSweeney, President of the United States and Party Chairman of the National Patriotic Party of America, would be etched into history as the two biggest mass murderers to ever have lived not only in the 20th century, but in the entirety of world history. Their actions still leave scars on the minds of men and women throughout the world. The history and background of Adolf Hitler is well documented and perhaps more well known by the world, especially Europe, but the life and story of Gordon McSweeney holds more attention in North America for obvious reasons. I intend to dissect and understand why McSweeney did what he did and to showcase how he created the NPPA and came to power.

Gordon McSweeney was born on a small farm near Eureka, Kansas on August 2nd, 1893. Growing up in a time of heightened patriotic fervor following the Second Mexican War, McSweeney become very nationalistic at a young age as well as deeply religious. Interviews with surviving family members during the 1950s and 1960s show that McSweeney's mind warped religion and nationalism into a single entity. That his duty on Earth, given to him by God Himself, was to fight for and protect the United States of America from any foe, external or internal.

Several months after turning eighteen McSweeney voluntarily joined the United States Army, a somewhat rare occurrence as the majority of the American military at the time, barring officers and non-coms, were conscripts. After basic training and before the Great War McSweeney traveled much of the United States ranging from San Diego to Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia. McSweeney excelled at being a soldier in those early years yet his performance was also the problem. He followed the rules too closely and considered any deviation from them near-criminal. His overbearing and zealot attitude brought him into conflict with fellow soldiers and his lack of success with others made him an outcast and therefore exempt from any promotion in the peacetime military. In official dispatches McSweeney's officers noted his fierce patriotism, his zealotry and his commitment and loyalty to the U.S. Army but past this he was nothing more than a mere soldier and was assumed that he would not go far in life.

This would change when the Great War started.

When the war began on August 6th, 1914, just four days after the future President-Dictator's birthday, McSweeney was on station in Kentucky with the aging General George Armstrong Custer's First Army. During the Invasion of Kentucky, and during his later service in Utah and Arkansas, McSweeney performed admirably, and in many instances bravely. His dedication to defeating the Confederacy was noticed by those around him and seen to be near fanatical. Nevertheless. during the war McSweeney would be promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, obtain the Medal of Honor for taking out a Confederate tank singlehandedly (a medal which he would wear on him at all times when he created the NPPA) and various other awards and commendations.

Despite the United States numerical and industrial superiority against the Confederate States, the U.S. once again lost to its southern cousins. This ranged from blunders within the American military, the poor use of manpower, and of waging a two front war (three if you include the Pacific). The United States' failure to use the tank properly, called a "barrel" by the Yankees, contributed greatly to their losing the war. The Confederate offensive Operation Longsword (spearheaded by tanks), launched in late 1916 saw the encirclement of Philadelphia, the _de jure_ capital of the U.S. similar to what General Lee performed in the War of Secession. This was followed by a multitude of failures on the frontline as wellas the home front with an outright Socialist rebellion flaring up in the Northeast, the Midwest and the West Coast in mid 1917. These events followed by the assassination of President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt along with much of his Cabinet by Socialist extremists shortly after the encirclement of Philadelphia led to their subsequent sue for peace in June of 1917.[1]

The future dictator took the loss hard and is rumored he became homeless in the streets of Philadelphia after his military discharge. Whether he became homeless or not the facts are that in November of 1917, with his beloved country facing another civil war, McSweeney joined the right-wing Soldiers' Circle (SC). The Soldiers' Circle was a organization made up of former conscripts before the war. But after the third defeat to the CSA the Soldiers' Circle opened its ranks to any former veteran as long as said veteran was at least second generation American, white, and non-Socialist.

When he first joined McSweeney was dispatched to the organization's Security Battalions and fought in the streets of New York City for almost four months, quickly reaching the rank of captain, before the the higher echelons of the Soldiers' Circle realized they had an American Hero on their hands.

Quickly pulled from the front, McSweeney became the poster boy for some months for the organization, nicknamed Captain America by the American public. He was chosen due to his previous experience in the war and his vast assortment of medals, rewards, recommendations, his well known bravado and fearlessness in combat showcased him as a selfless hero. The Medal of Honor is what really convinced the SC leaders that McSweeney could be a propaganda boon to them.

And he was... for a time. Eventually the Socialist extremists lost the rebellion they created. Surprising many, acting President Walter McKenna, the Vice President under Roosevelt, did not ban the Socialist Party. He defended this stance as the Socialist Party had come under new leadership with Hosea Blackford, a Socialist Congressman who was well respected and considered an astute politician, and had come to lead the Party.

Blackford's principal goal in the years following the Red Uprising of 1917 was to restore the legitimacy and image of the Socialist Party among the American populace. He would face little success for the next decade until the Great Depression. McSweeney, an ardent Democrat, was disgusted by the acts of the Democrat Administration post-Red Uprising. He viewed the acts of the Government and the lack of persecution of the Socialists after the Uprising was over as traitorous and practically heretical. Shortly after this, McSweeney would leave the Democrat Party.

With the Uprising over there was no need to have McSweeney as "Captain America" and was quickly moved over to become a propaganda speaker that would tour the defeated country to raise money for the Soldiers' Circle. And tour he did from mid 1918 to late 1919, visiting whole swathes of the large country. It was during this time McSweeney met his future wife Abigail Wilkerson in Chicago, Illinois. She was a woman of twenty-four years who had lost two brothers, a father and a fiancee in the Great War as well as her sister during the Uprising in New York. From city to city McSweeney would make speeches, quickly finding he could direct his anger and nationalistic fervor into words that appealed to the masses quite easily. Whether it was a town hall or a city park or even an abandoned warehouse, McSweeney made many a speech in his time as a Soldiers' Circle propagandist.

However the topic of his speeches quickly turned from supporting and donating to the Soldiers' Circle to revolving around ardent racism against Jews, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and hate of certain religions and religious sects such as the Church of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons). But hatred of these minorities were only a part of the speeches he made. His virulent hatred of Socialism, the Socialist Party (contributing to his hatred of Jews as the SP had a large number of Jewish members, many of them high ranking leaders in the Party), his disdain for the current, weak willed Democrat Party and above all his burning hatred for the Confederate States of America.

These speeches, well documented in written form, with a few caught on primitive video cameras, were infectious and he quickly garnered himself a following. The Soldiers' Circle, seeing a threat and wanting to remain loyal to the Democrat Party, forced McSweeney out of the organization, stripped of all titles and duties. They thought this would stop the rising popularity he was obtaining.

They were wrong.

Despite Soldiers' Circle leaders predictions, the opposite held true. McSweeney's popularity grew in leaps and bounds by like minded individuals and by late 1920 the Kansas native was ready to create a new political party. He promoted it as a far right-wing, anti-Democrat, anti-Republican, anti-Semite, anti-racial minorities, anti-Socialist, anti-Communist, anti-Canadian and above all anti-Confederate. It was an extremely pro-nationalistic, pro-Christian, pro-national expansion and pro-United States political doctrine.

On September 27th, 1920 the National Patriotic Party of America was formed by McSweeney, who would become its first member and Party Chairman along with another couple hundred disgruntled veterans joining. The nations of the Earth would soon tremble.

[1]It should be noted that alternate history authors have speculated on what might have happened if General Custer had lived to see the deployment of tanks, as he was a proponent of mass cavalry charges and tanks have truly become the modern cavalry, albeit armored. Alas, he died on June 25, 1916 from a heart attack.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Confederate Racial Policies 1862-1918**

It is no secret that the past of the Confederacy is mired in the blood of slaves and second-class citizens, almost exclusively made up of those of African descent. It is shameful to look and think about now, but we cannot ignore the fact that it did happen. While the War of Secession was fought over states' rights, a large part of those Southern rights were the right to own slaves. Winning the war allowed us to keep them as slaves until the Manumission of 1882, which saw the African-Confederate population "freed" but they remained slaves in all but name. They were required to carry passbooks at all times, were largely restricted to the cities and plantations, and were paid substantially less than whites.

It remained this way even into the Great War. For the first year and a half the black population of the Confederacy remained as it always did: subservient to the white population. Even those in the military were relegated to labor battalions. While Negroes could get jobs that were previously held only by whites, such as factory worker, this was understood to be a temporary measure; once the war ended, they would step down to allow returning soldiers their jobs back, and return to working the cotton fields and other menial labor jobs.

This changed when in mid 1915 when C.S. Army authorities, tipped off from reliable sources, made thousands of arrests of Negroes ranging from officers' servants to farm laborers. This would be the first of many arrest waves that apprehended Socialist/Communist "Red" inclined Negroes. Many of those arrested were in fact cell leaders or suppliers of weapons and supplies. Apprehending these key figures before the Rebellion could begin doomed it from the start. It began as a simmering fizz rather than the roaring fire it would have been.

Not to say the Red Rebellions were put down easily, far from it, but state militia and third-tier troops were able to take care of all but the worse hot-spots, such as the Congaree Socialist Republic in South Carolina which refused to die out until early 1916. By early May of 1916 all of the "Socialist Republics" had been eliminated with the death toll estimated to be over one and thirty hundred thousand, almost eighty percent which belonged to the black population.

The Confederate Government had never before faced such a large spread rebellion before and were fearful of a second attempt. Many plans were brought forward to deal with the "Red Problem". Some were well meaning such as raising the standard of living of the black population across the board to make them more comfortable and less likely to resent. This was rejected for not solving the problem at its root. Others were not so well intentioned. Some military officers and government officials wanted to establish work camps for the "residential population" to work itself to death in the process of helping the Confederacy. This was rejected for being monstrous and taking too many scarce resources in a war of survival.

A proposition that was proposed was made by the former President Woodrow Wilson. Speaking to the new president, Gabriel Semmes, directly, the former Whig president presented a plan that could stabilize race relations between the white and black Confederate population. It called for allowing black men to volunteer in the military and after their term of service (two years or until the war was over), or if they were wounded in action, they would be granted citizenship and full rights, with the sole exception of inter-racial marriage. For those that would or could not volunteer for military service they would be allowed a few more civil rights. This ranged from public school funding for African-Confederate communities and the extension of Negro curfew from 9:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m., the same for white children.

The addition of a Negro could own his or her own property instead of merely rent was a huge boost in establishing African-Confederate equality. As was extending the law of having police and military forces having to need a search warrant to enter an African-Confederate's household instead of barging in without cause.

When the Woodrow Wilson Proposal was announced in the Confederate Congress and transmitted to the world via newspaper and wireless the reaction was generally negative amongst the Confederate white majority-At least for a time. But that would slowly begin to change. Black soldiers, which numbered over 240,000 by war's end, served bravely and in many cases with distinction, impressed many whites that maybe one day the blacks could become more than just residents-That they could become citizens as well. While these might look like minuscule baby steps, which they in fact were, it was a vast step into the direction of Negro equality. Despite these advances in the right direction, the entire African-Confederate community would not reach full equality until the turbulent 1970s, but that is a story for another time.

In conclusion the Red Rebellions which annoyed the Confederacy from mid-autumn of 1915 to late spring of 1916 could have been much worse if not for the rapid action taken by C.S. authorities in removing the dangerous leadership elements before the Rebellions could truly begin. Despite the high loss of life on both sides, the Rebellions were instrumental in showing the white population that Negroes could and would fight to defend themselves and convinced many, either consciously or subconsciously, that it would be a far less painful and bloody route to begin giving civil rights and extending liberties to better unify the country in the long run.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: The First Years of the National Patriotic Party of America**

"I'm proud of being an American, but our country is dying around us. Our great nation is hemorrhaging, and may soon die a final death if we do not stand up to the many enemies within. The liars that are Democrats continue to lead us into the abyss. The parasitic Jews extend their vile tendrils into Christian run businesses, and continue to push our nation to a Socialist 'paradise' where everyone lives in squalor and without morals. Eastern Europeans are swarming to our shores like cockroaches from an overturned couch. My God-fearing countrymen, do you want that?"

Those were the opening words spoken at the first National Patriotic Party of America meeting. In front of a crowd of just under three hundred, many former Soldiers' Circle who followed McSweeney voluntarily to the NPPA or were otherwise kicked out due to their beliefs and association with the Scottish-American Presbyterian and joined for the sake of expressing their anger in a community that would understand them.

"No!" the disgruntled men replied. Their voices hoarse and passionate with hate. It was this kind of hate that would enlarge the Patriotic Party from a mere three hundred at is first meeting in Philadelphia to almost twelve thousand in six months. This was very rapid growth for a new political party and most newly founded parties would stagnate and over time fade away or become absorbed by either the still dominant Democrat Party, the weaker but still influential Socialist Party or the quickly growing Republican Party, which was rapidly becoming a major political force once again with the decline of the Socialists in the early 1920s.

By December of 1920 the Party had reached fifteen thousand registered members with thousands more attending but not committed to the point of joining and paying the monthly fee. Due to no national recognition nor a large power base McSweeney decided not to run for President in 1920, he would wait until 1924 to enter the ballot. It was also in late 1920 that Gordon McSweeney married his fiancee of one year and companion of two in a ceremony in a small, simple Presbyterian Church outside Philadelphia proper. Abigail Beatrice Wilkerson would become Abigail Beatrice McSweeney, who would one day be the First Lady of the United States.

While McSweeney's Party was small in comparison to the Democrats, Socialists and the Republicans, it more than made up its numbers with discipline, determination and near fanaticism. The Party Chairman was the first to introduce organized, large scale physical assaults on his enemies political rallies and social gatherings. Using his own private army, the Patriotic Legion, the name of the Patriots quickly became one said with fear and awe throughout much of Pennsylvania and by extension New England. Other minor parties would also form similar gangs to break up rival rallies, but they had neither the size, organization or ferocity of the Patriots.

By 1921 the Patriotic Legion, nicknamed the Greenshirts due to their uniform[1], had grown to a powerful force of two thousand and began acting as a _de facto_ police force in troublesome neighborhoods, usually full of minorities such as blacks, Jews, foreign immigrants and Asians. Death toll in these areas would rise considerably but could never be quite linked to the PL. Dressed and disciplined like a military unit, as many were war veterans, the Patriotic Legion armed itself with clubs, bats, knifes and pistols and took to the streets yelling the Party's war-cries of "USA" and "Long live America." The local police forces in southern and mid New England were either members, sympathizers to the NPPA or were threatened into not interfering with "Party business." This allowed the NPPA quite a bit of reign and gave them the opportunity to consolidate resources and manpower to eventually expand to the north and west.

While national politicians took little to no notice of the "green clothed gangsters" state centered politicians did take notice. This was especially true in Pennsylvania, which was rapidly becoming a Patriotic power house and home base. The state's governor Williams E. Crow called the state militia to contain the "right-wing threat." The state militia, as with other federal and state institutions and organizations, had faced severe budget cuts whether it be from lack of funds or by restrictions placed on the United States by the Treaty of Trenton. Regardless, when the few hundred state militia nearby answered the call, they were not only outnumbered but outgunned as well by the Patriotic Legion. The commander of the militia wisely sent his men home and he himself went home soon after. There would be no bloodshed between the Patriots and militia. Not yet.

Governor Crow was furious but his poor health prevented him from responding aggressively. He would die a few months later, officially due to bad health although some suspected NPPA interference. His replacement would be more cooperative and careful around the Patriotic Party as they were beginning to flex their muscles throughout 1921.

1922 saw little change for the Party except for stable, steady progression into northern New England and seeping into the Midwest with Wichita, Columbus, and Chicago quickly becoming powerhouses for the Party that would assist regional expansion in the coming years. An official Party sigil was created with input from McSweeney (before this the Party used the American flag in its standard position or upside down to show the nation was distressed). The sigil was an American eagle looking forward with two crossed swords in the background and its talon clutching a single star representing one country, one people. It would come to be as distinguished and feared as the Nazi Swastika in the coming decades. The Party symbol would be used as co-National Symbol next to the American Flag and the Party Symbol would fly high and proud next to the American Flag on an equal level.

While this would be the official Party Symbol, another two would be made and made popular by the Patriots. A golden cross on a blue flag surrounding by a white circle. This would grow to be used by the PL as an unofficial sigil until 1921 when it becomes the official symbol of the PL and by extent one of the three symbols for the NPPA at the time. The Party would also begin using the Fascist Salute that the Italian National Fascist Party and the German National Socialist Party were using _en masse_. The NPPA would say it was merely the Bellamy Salute with a slight alteration and therefore was merely an extension of "good, law-abiding Americans greeting other good, law-abiding Americans."

The Party would engage in street brawls with dozens of other minor political parties throughout New England/Midwest. These parties ranged from fascist, populist, socialist (but not part of the Socialist Party), communist, democratic, and anarchist. As the Greenshirts made a name for themselves on the streets, McSweeney made a name for himself travelling throughout the Eastern half of the country and enacting small rallies. The amount of people that came to view the deeply religious and far right-winger ranged from barely a hundred to up to ten thousand.

By the end of 1922 the NPPA had a membership of just over ninety thousand with the Patriotic Legion numbering four thousand of that. The Party was on the rise but was not advancing as fast as McSweeney would have wished. At this rate the Party would barely make a dent in the presidential ballot in two years. This would change in October of 1922.

During a speech in New York City McSweeney was shot and wounded by an assassin. PL and NYPD after a day's search found and cornered the assassin. The assassin did not give up and was shot to death by the NYPD. His identity was discovered to be David Hamburger, a Jewish citizen of New York City, and a former veteran of Socialist affiliation. McSweeney, in the meantime had been rushed to the local hospital. There were rumors that the bullet had punctured an artery and the Party Chairman died in the ambulance. This would turn out to be false, as only hours after entering the hospital, McSweeney would exit with two score PL guards with his left arm bandaged and in a sling but otherwise unharmed.

When questioned on why the assassin targeted him McSweeney would reply, "The Jew is a sly devil. They killed our Savior Jesus Christ near two thousand years ago to snub out the Hope of Christianity. Now they attempt to kill me and snub out National Patriotism and the one true hope for the American people. The American people can do one of three things: They can do nothing and ensure their destruction whether it be decades or centuries. They can join the Jew and its foreign immigrant friends and merely hasten our destruction. Or they can join the National Patriotic Party of America. We are not weak willed and soft like the Democrats, we are not a cankerous entity like the Socialist Party nor is our ideology ever-shifting like a flag in the wind, toeing the popular sentiment like the Republicans. We are the Patriotic Party. Our ideology does not fluctuate, it does not change to fit individual, personal needs. It is created to make us strong again, to make America truly great and united. It is as strong as steel, tempered in the battle for a stronger, better country. Who will you vote for come November of 1924?"

"National Patriotic, sir," murmured the reporter.

"Good man. May God go with you and remember, we _will_ win in the end. We will make our Lady America strong and stand high and proud again one day."

The failed assassination attempt not only spurred on McSweeney's rising national popularity, but also saw rising antisemitism in a state formerly known for its tolerance of its Jewish citizens. The assassination attempt also showed a flaw in the Party's structure. While the Patriotic Legion was very well adept at street fighting and brawling, it was not necessarily an adequate bodyguard unit. Therefore PL member J. Edgar Hoover, Party #2,874, formed an elite bodyguard unit, with McSweeney's approval, to protect the Chairman at all times. This unit would consist of one hundred men, picked by Hoover and McSweeney. They would have dark blue uniforms instead of a variation of forest gray-green and would be called "Blueshirts" soon after formation. This would be the nucleus of the Patriotic Guard, a Party paramilitary organization which would enforce McSweeney's rule in the United States and perform some of the worst crimes against humanity in recorded history, rivaling that of the Nazi _Schutzstaffel_. The Patriotic Guard's emblem would be the wings of an American Eagle but with a skull connecting to wings together. Hoover, by creating the PG, would arguably become the second most powerful man in the Party and would obtain the titles of Vice-Chairman of the Party and Security Chief of the Patriotic Guard. His chief competitors would by Chief Propagandist Charles Coughlin (who stepped down as a priest to perform full time as a propagandist) and Patriotic Legion Commander Virgil Effinger.

The die had been cast and the Butcher was rolling well.

[1]McSweeney was able to buy a variation of the U.S. Army's green-gray uniform in late 1920 with the money used from the Party's coffers. It was supposed to be a newer uniform for Military Police and tens of thousands were made but the war ended before they could be finalized, approved, and distributed. The bankrupt American government was forced to curtail any unnecessary expenditures and canceled its order of the new uniforms. This allowed McSweeney to purchase the uniforms pennies a piece, essentially "dirt cheap" as some would call it.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: NPPA Ideology, Accepted Religions and Races/Ethnicities**

In Europe, North Africa and the Middle East Nazi Germany would persecute Jews, certain sects of Islam, Slavs, Roma, homosexuals, Communists, and many others during its fifteen year reign of bloodshed. In the United States the NPPA would reign from 1933-1946 and perform mass murder on a continent wide scale. The victims of the North American Genocide are hard to make as clear cut as the Holocaust in Europe due to being more diverse pool of victims and in some ways contradicting.

McSweeney, as a hardline, devout Presbyterian, hated the Church of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) with a burning passion. This is thought to be because of their known polygamy in the Church of Latter-Day Saints, along with the fact that McSweeney fought in Utah during the Great War, fighting there until extinguishing the Mormon rebellion in late 1916.[1]

Although McSweeney admits, through his published works of _A Golden Cross and the Soaring Eagle_ , that he did not have many who he considered friends, he lost most of them in the grueling campaign of Utah, including one Corporal Paul Mantarakis, a soldier of Greek Orthodox background. It is noted that in those years during the Great War that McSweeney was quite the religious bigot, to a degree more so than as president. He frequently declared all religions and sects/denominations of Christianity other than his own as utterly misguided at best, or outright heretical at worst. Soldiers that served with McSweeney commented on his almost virulent dislike for anything non-Presbyterian, even noting that he never read a newspaper.

So it is quite strange that the Butcher would befriend a man of the Greek Orthodox faith. To shed light on this cognitive dissonance, this excerpt is taken from an interview with Private First Class (ret.) Ben Carlton in 1950, who was the company cook and served with McSweeney the entire war:

- _"He was a madman. A fucking madman. A God-fearing, Bible-thumping madman. I knew that then, having served with him and all. But... but there was a certain fiery passion that attracted people to him like flies to a light."_

 _"What was this 'fiery passion'?"_

 _"Well, I'm not quite sure to be honest, but it might have been his brutal honesty and faith in victory. Since day one during the Kentucky Invasion, Gordon never spoke a lie, he never cheated another man in the company, nor did he shirk from his duties or fighting. His belief in ultimate victory inspired those around him in thinking that we could win this war. That after two humiliations by the South that we would finally emerge victorious. We were wrong in that aspect, but it was good to feel that, for a time at least."_

 _"Interesting. Now tell me about Corporal Paul Mantarakis if you would."_

 _"The bead-rubber? Well, he was a better cook than me, I'll admit that, although at the time it pissed me off to no end. He was a first generation American, his parents came from Greece in the last decade of the 19th century I think. Paul... Paul was a good man, a good fighter and an even greater friend to those around him. He was patient, quiet, and understanding. The opposite of Gordon but for some reason I will never fathom the two grew close."_

 _"How so?"_

 _"Fighting, especially in the trenches for months at a time, brings men together into a sort of brotherly bond in most cases. Well, when Paul died outside Salt Lake City in the final push, Gordon seemed to die a little inside. He reverted into himself, rarely talking to others for some weeks. No longer did he bellow about how Greek Orthodox was blasphemous. In fact it seemed his view on religion changed a lot then and there. For the remainder of the war McSweeney's views relented somewhat and he would not criticize any other Protestant denominations, nor Catholic or Eastern Orthodox. I'm not sure why the change was sudden but I have a theory."_

 _"Such as?"_

 _"Pretend we are in Gordon's mind, scary I know, but stay with me. Well if a "blasphemer" such as Paul could fight so hard and so bravely for his country, then surely he couldn't go to hell. For defending one's country was a holy commandment sent by God to the Men of America. So no matter the faith, as long as it was derived from Christianity and was of "good moral background" than he didn't care anymore or at least he didn't show that he cared. Whether you were Roman Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, or Orthodox, he began to accept them as long as you were true Americans ready to defend your homeland. Though I think in his mind Presbyterian remained the "most right" but the others were at least close and were trying to avoid damnation through their own beliefs in God and through defending the United States of America."_

 _"Do you think this is why the Patriot Party had such a large and diverse Christian following?"_

 _"I would say so, yes. Look at the facts. Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox all swarmed to his banner in the millions during the late '20s and early '30s. He might have been extremist but he had become more... aware I guess that he would never had reached the Presidency if he hated and persecuted all but the Presbyterian Church. If Paul had not died, or if Gordon refused to become more tolerant, I don't see how McSweeney could have ever become President."_

 _"Thank you. One last question. Do you think the Mormons could have ever been allowed into the Patriot Party?"_

 _"No. They tried to break away twice when Gordon created the Party, they attempted to kill him on multiple occasions during the Utah campaign, and they killed his only true friend in the company. While it might have caused an epiphany and raised his tolerance for other Christian churches he would never have accepted the the Mormons into his New America. Never, ever."_

 _"Your evidence?"_

 _"Have you ever been to Utah, sir?"_

 _"Yes, in 1931. Since then, I have not."_

 _"Go there now. You will find it a much more different place than what you remembered. And for the worse I might add. There's your evidence."_

As the excerpt stated, Gordon McSweeney underwent a traumatic event in late 1916 and is reported that for almost a month he rarely spoke, ate or did anything other than pray and fight. But at the end of this period the Butcher had become a more understanding and tolerant human being for other Christian faiths (barring the Church of Latter-Day Saints and other "corrupted cults"). This shows why the ardent hater of any and all of those not in his faith to becoming a man that united various Christian sects and through that unity became the largest political party by 1932 and allowed for a Dark Age to descend upon the United States.

As stated above the Ideology of the NPPA was somewhat convoluted and not clear cut in many minor instances. But it did have a clear message on its major stances. The Party wanted to see the return of he United States to the world stage. The NPPA dearly wanted the U.S. to become a world power alongside the Confederacy, the British Empire, and France. To do so the USA must be become one nation under one party with a clear foreign policy. The Party demanded the return of West Virginia, Maryland, East New Mexico, and the other minor border adjustments the Treaty of Trenton forced on the Americans. They advocated a society even more militaristic than pre-Great War USA with a heavy emphasis on segregation that mirrored pre-war Confederacy.

While the South might have had the largest Negro population in North America, estimated to be ten million by the time of the Second Great War, it had a more united Caucasian population that readily identified simply as white Confederate. The North, however, had a much more varied white ethnicities as if to make up for lack of black citizens. People in the North, to this day even, would say they are of German-American, French-American, Scottish-American, Irish-American, Greek-American descent etc. This extensive and diverse Caucasian population had trouble acting as a single body post-war. Before the Great War these peoples had been united in the idea of defeating the with the Southern victory over the United States the glue that held the North together was coming apart at the seams.

McSweeney, who might have been a virgin politician and a little too honest and blunt, did recognize that the American people needed a scapegoat. The first, and largest, scapegoat was the Jewish-American population. Using the "evidence" that the Socialist Party was "run by Jews for the betterment of Jews" convinced many that the reason the U.S. lost the war was because of the Jews and the Socialists, which in many American citizens' eyes were one and the same, merely an extension of the other.

This is a shared similarity between the German Nazis and American Patriots but the Patriots had other scapegoats to add to the list. Asian-Americans were seen as free loaders that refused to serve their country (many Patriots subconsciously ignored the fact that many Asian-Americans wanted to join the military and fight the Confederacy but were not allowed to by the American military which forbade racial minorities from joining). African-Americans, numbering only a few hundred thousand, also saw growing persecution with the rise of the NPPA. Lynchings and tar and feathering became quite common for black Americans. Many served in auxiliary units for the military, in semi-military non-combat roles yet the NPPA saw them nothing more than "a mongrel that had taken root into tearing down the great nation of America."

The topic of immigration is perhaps where most of the ideological confusion occurs from. While the Party had no problem with white people being born in the United States it did have an issue with Eastern European immigrants (other racial minority immigrants were persecuted more severely). Despite this many immigrants joined or supported the Party.

When the Party came to power the immigration policy would become more clear cut. The laws on what it took to become an American citizen skyrocketed and became quite, quite difficult. The foreign immigrant in question must take weekly classes for a period of ten years to become "Americanized." They would need to understand and speak fluent English. If the individual(s) passed the immigration tests they would be subject to a five year term of "National Service" which was in reality nothing more than hard manual labor. Essentially for a five year period the immigrant(s) would be a slave to the American government. Many would die at this point from horrid conditions.

But if the laborer survived the five years of National Service he/she would receive citizenship, full civil rights (as much as any other American during the McSweeney Administration which was admittedly not much), a monetary compensation for their service and would be housed in a two year rent free apartment, most of which were newly constructed and well furnished (in almost all cases this was seen as a vast improvement over the near impoverished conditions most immigrants lived in). They would also be guaranteed a government job with decent pay if they so accepted (was principally janitorial or other menial type jobs). Their children, if born within the United States, would automatically become citizens. Any children that were brought over from their former homeland would have to to do the application tests as well and serve a shorter two year National Service term.

Due to the end rewards and recognition many immigrants not only favored the NPPA but actively supported it. Most political parties might have been easier into accepting immigration but once the immigrant became a citizen they were treated no better, nor were they given anything better than a piece of paper. The NPPA's methods, while brutal and with a high mortality rate, did give the immigrants a better life once they completed service.

The Party was firmly capitalistic, but despised the amount of power and autonomy the large companies had. The Patriots thought that big business should be monitored and their power curtailed to better suite the needs of the American people. While it was somewhat opposed to big business (ironic since many big businesses supported the Party after the Crash) it had the overwhelming support of medium and small businesses who felt the Party's stance on big business limitations better ensured their own survival and prosperity.

While from the late '20s and onward the NPPA would be described as fascist or a branch off of Nazism. It would deny these adamantly and state time and time again that it was a right-wing movement but instead of National Fascism or National Socialism it was built from the ideals of National Patriotism.

[1] The rebellion was predicted to end in mid 1916 by the U.S. General Staff but fierce Mormon resistance, and more Confederate aid to the Mormons than anticipated, made it last another few months.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: The Treaty of Trenton**

With the encirclement of Philadelphia by Confederate armored forces in May of 1917, in conjunction with the first outbreaks of the Red Uprising throughout the United States, and the assassination of Teddy Roosevelt, along with much of the Cabinet, the American government was in a bad way. It was thereby forced to sue for peace in early June of 1917.

Representatives from Canada, Britain, the Confederacy and the United States convened in Trenton, New Jersey to discuss terms. Despite ex-President Wilson's calls for leniency, the victors were noticeably harsh. Gone at the stroke of a pen were Maine which would be fully annexed by Canada. West Virginia, Maryland, eastern and southern New Mexico were all gone to the Confederacy. The Sandwich Islands would be returned back to Britain. There were scores of minor border adjustments elsewhere between the U.S.-Confederate/Canadian borders, almost all in favor of the Entente nations.

The loss of territory was bad enough but that was not all. The USA would have to pay yearly monetary payments to all three nations with 75% to the Confederacy, 20% to Canada and 5% to Britain. The United States was barred from creating new battleships, carriers, and submarines, with all those currently in service to be taken by the three victorious nations. The amount of cruisers, destroyers, and frigates would be severely limited. The brand new carrier _USS Remembrance,_ which had just finished construction by the time of Philadelphia's encirclement was sent to Britain to be studied, modified and eventually put into service in the Royal Navy. The payments would be put to use to repair and rebuild territory damaged by the war as well, in the CSA and Canada's case, expand their industry to be better able to resist and fight in another war against the United States.

Limits would be placed on the U.S. Army and Army Air Force, with the USAAF barred from producing new models of fighters and bombers, only current models were allowed, and even then there would be no bombers and limited amount of fighter and observation aircraft. The Army would downsize from its near five and a half million by 1917 to 150,000. Conscription would be halted along with heavy restrictions on how many artillery pieces, tanks and machine guns could be produced, and poison gas was also banned.

The Treaty was utterly humiliating for a nation that had now lost three times in a row. Throughout the United States, hundreds of thousands protested and riots popped up throughout the major cities, some of them independent ones to vent anger and fear while others were organized and thrown by the Red extremists. The forced payment of money (mainly in copper, silver, gold and other valued material) to Canada, Britain and the Confederate States saw the U.S. dollar plummet and the U.S. Treasury near bankruptcy multiple times in the early 1920s. The war had cost the U.S. much and the payments that it was forced to deliver on a routine basis made the country barely able to scrape by from 1917-1922, just as the Entente hoped. Inflation would grow to be a national crisis by 1918, and plague the country throughout the early 20s. Like in Germany, the dollar became so worthless, bills were often used as wallpaper.

The Treaty was finalized and signed June 17th, 1917 and the Treaty would help assure the rise of the NPPA to national dominance in the coming decades. Almost all historians agree that if the Treaties of Trenton and Versailles were less harsh and more forgiving, then there likely would not have been a Patriotic America, or Nazi Germany, and in turn a different Second Great War, if one were to occur at all.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Confederate Politics from 1917-1940**

While the economically and spiritually broken United States descended into near-anarchy, the Confederate States continued to prosper. Having won its third war against its northern neighbor in less than sixty years, many were content with keeping things the way they had always been. However a large percentage of the Confederate population, especially in the border states, took notice of the rising right-wing and left-wing political parties that were beginning to form in the U.S. and many of them were worried if one of these were to come to power.

The largest and most powerful party in the Confederacy, the Whigs, had come out of the war with their power base secure but wavering. The sheer amount of dead Confederates and the Red Rebellions began to loosen the iron grip the Whigs held on power. They had received much of their backing from the planter class, which had been shaken by the Red unrest.

Mirroring the United States, a plethora of political parties began to form. Many would collapse within months or years with only a few ever growing enough to be taken seriously in elections, whether it be local or national.

One such party that became noticed as the 1920s, called the Roaring '20s by the Confederacy due to economic prosperity, was the Conservative Party. Through the entire history of the Confederacy up to that point the Whig Party had been the conservatives yet they had become complacent with power. The Whig's unofficial philosophy seemed to be "If it isn't broke, why fix it?"

The Whig Party was heavily associated with the blue-blooded, aristocratic Southern families that controlled the politics, the agriculture and much of the industry of the country. This hold on power was considerably weakened as many of the young blue-blooded aristocrats died or lost power and influence in the Great War, either from fighting the United States or against the Red Rebellions.

With the Whigs grip loosened, parties such as the Conservative Party rose to prominence preaching that they Confederacy must maintain a large modern military (the C.S. Army saw itself massively downsized with the war ending with barely 230,000 by 1920, this coming from an Army of millions), increased industrialization both in the cities and in the countryside, as well as keeping itself closely aligned with France, Britain, Mexico, and Canada. To see increased industrialization the C.S. Government would help jump-start industrial companies and receive a slight profit for a period of ten years to pay back the loans the C.S. Government gave to the company creators. This would inevitably see a rise in Confederate companies, most in the hands of non-aristocrats.

This conflicted with the Whigs' ideology of keeping industry concentrated in the hands of the few. The Whigs would lose popularity in the South during the latter '20s and early '30s in large part due to the ineffectiveness of their Party in combating the Great Depression and the lethargic, as well ineffective, relief efforts given to the victims of the Mississippi River floods during the early 1930s.

When Gordon McSweeney was voted into office in November 1932, assuming office in January of 1933, the Confederate people began to wake up and truly realize the threat taking hold in the North. By the time the election of 1933 rolled around the Confederate people were ready for change and that is what they got with the election of the first non-Whig in 1933. The Conservative Party had won its first election, but not its last.

John W. Martin, a relative political unknown outside his home state, was a former Governor of Florida from 1925-1929 and saw his state prosper with the expansion of roads, highways, state-funded education and bountiful agricultural years. While his successor Doyle E. Carlton would face serious problems when the Great Depression hit Martin was on the rise politically. Securing a position in the Confederate Senate soon afterwards Martin witnessed the Great Depression cripple the Confederate economy and the Mississippi River floods wreak havoc on his country. Finally he had enough and the former Governor decided to run for President in 1933 against Whig candidate Samuel Longstreet.

Martin promised a return of a sound economy with his New Strategy Economics, inspired in part by the failed Socialist presidential candidate Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal program. Martin promised a vast modernization and resurgence of the Confederate military, an expansion of industry, and an aggressive foreign policy against the United States and Nazi Germany. The results were astounding as the Conservative Party carried eleven out of eighteen states. Almost 59% of the popular vote went to Martin with the majority going to Longstreet and a scant few percent going to the Radical Liberals candidate Cordell Hull. This defeat would signify the death of the Radical Liberals until their resurgence in the early 1960s.

On March 4th, 1934 President-Elect Martin became the first non-Whig to become President. His Vice-President was Texan born John Nance Garner IV, a former Whig which added much needed credibility to the Conservative Party since its formation in 1924. Once in office Martin and his Administration implemented their New Strategy Economics which included damming the Mississippi River thanks to the River Dam Amendment of 1934. Construction would begin in late 1934, finishing in early 1937 and would provide much needed electricity for the country in general and protection against floods for the Deep South particularly.

But that was not all. Martin created the Work Relief Administration to hire many Confederates, almost all of them white, with some Hispanic and African-Confederates also in the mix, and put them to work throughout the country building various public works projects, electrical towers, paved roads, larger and more efficient highways among others. By the time Martin's term in office expired in March of 1940, the Confederate States had mostly recovered from the economic downturn with the expansion of new industries alongside the mass employment of the work force. The Army had grown to 450,000 men with modern weapons (such as the Tredegar Automatic Rifle or TAR for short), modern tanks, aircraft and naval vessels.

Though the efforts of Martin would be noted as being critical in ensuring the survival of the Confederacy in the dark days of the Second Great War it was the actions of the Secretary of State during his Administration that would be hailed as the Protector of the Confederacy and arguably the greatest Confederate President since Davis, Lee, Longstreet, and Wilson.

This man was a veteran of the Great War who was instrumental in rooting out Red cell leaders before the Rebellions truly began, thereby crippling them. He would serve in the C.S. Army until the early 1920s, retiring as a Lieutenant-Colonel and entered the realm of politics and was a founding member of the Conservative Party. As Secretary of State he would instrumental in cementing the alliance between the Confederacy, Britain, Canada, Mexico, and France (the alliance had begun to fracture throughout the 1920s up until the mid 1930s). He verbally assaulted and tried to raise world awareness of the horrid actions taking place in McSweeney's New America such as the passing of the infamous Columbus Edicts of Race, the putting of Jewish-Americans, Asian-Americans and African-Americans into ghettos, and the Mormon Pacification of 1938.

His vocal and adamant attacks on McSweeney would earn him the Butcher's hatred. The feeling was mutual. When Garner ran for the Presidential Office in 1939 on the Conservative Party ticket his running mate was Martin's Secretary of State. Garner ran on the platform of staying strong against any foreign aggression and hailed the German invasion of Poland as "Monstrous and Warmongering, typical Fascist aggression at its worse."[1]

On March 4th, 1940 John Nance Garner becomes President of the Confederate States while Clarence Potter becomes Vice-President. While the South congratulated its new President, the current Vice-President (and future President in just over a year's time) looks to the North and worries as the American Eagle begins to grow restless, its wings quivering with the need to exact vengeance on its foreign rivals.

[1]The Germans invaded Poland on September 1st, 1939, and despite heroic resistance, Poland would surrender October 6th, crushed between the modern and vast armies of the Third _Reich_ and Soviet Russia. Poland had expected France and Britain to declare war on Germany, but both nations refrained from doing so at the last second. The two countries were not ready for war quite yet, and with the Confederacy casting worrying eyes to its northern neighbor, there would be little, if any, support from the Confederates against the Germans. With the threat of Canada being invaded by the Americans growing daily, the British dispatch 100,000 soldiers to reinforce their North American Dominion. Germany, with 2/3 of Poland and Lithuania, now forcibly integrated into the _Reich,_ began to look to the West. Hitler wanted to attack in early to mid 1940, but his generals would convince him to wait until 1941 to attack France and Britain. This would give more time to properly integrate the industries of Poland and Lithuania into Germany and for the German _Wehrmacht_ to become not only larger but more well armed and equipped.*


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Minor Confederate Political Parties 1917-1943**

While the Conservative Party was without a doubt the most successful new political party that emerged in the aftermath of the Great War and Great Depression, they were not the only ones formed at that time. In fact there were dozens, most of which whose names are only remembered in history textbooks and even there only in sidetones.

Parties such as the Butternut Banner Movement, the Moderate Liberals Party and the Southern Pride Association were the obscure and easily forgotten names which would all last less than four years until becoming defunct or integrated into other political camps. Some like the United Southron Party would occasionally flare up throughout the years (1918-1923) (1929-1933) (1987-present) but would never win an election until its first and only in the Presidential Election of 2005 with a term from 2006-2012. The minor Confederate political parties known quite well in the history books include, of course, the Confederate Socialist Party, whose reputation suffered due to the Red Rebellion but nevertheless has been able to maintain a small prescence in the Confederate Congress (most but not all African-Confederates support this party during the first half of the 20th century) since the late 1920s.

Another party, this one more infamous and for good reason, was the Redemption League. It was formed in late 1917 to protest the rising amount of African-Confederates gaining citizenship. The idea that Negroes were acquiring more civil rights across the board, with those that had fought in the war being given the right to vote, was an anathema to them. This became one of the core tenets of the Redemption League's ideology, alongside the need for a strong military, the desire for more territory (particularly West New Mexico and Kansas), with a very nationalist, militarist mindset. Their virulent anti-Whig/arisotocratic views were noted by others at the time to be quite extreme. The Redemption League's Chairman Willy Knight, a young but ambitious Texan politician, put the League's philosophy in simple words in an interview in 1920 with the _Constitutionalist_ , shortly after the dual acquisition of the White Templars (headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia) and the Freedom Party (headquartered in Richmond, Virginia) which incidentally gave the League a more national presence.

- _"Mr. Knight, the Confederate people would like to know, where do you stand on the issue of racial equality?"_

 _"Equality," (Knight snorts), "How can the white man has fallen so low to be considered equal to_ the Negro _? Yes, yes, some of the blacks fought in the War and I hear a few even fought bravely, but even a dimwitted dog can be brave when it knows nothing better. President Semmes is throwing away hundreds of years of tradition and culture down the toilet by giving blacks not only civil rights but citizenship as well."_

 _"President Semmes had been quoted as saying that the Negro population, once educated properly and given the chance, can be very beneficiary to the nation."_

 _"President Semmes is a Whig blue-blood who never saw the frontline, nor what them Negro Reds did to the country, not up close anyway. Is the Confederacy just going to forget that over four years ago there was a largescale Negro rebellion that hurt us in a time when the war could have swung either way? A rebellion that could have been worse, had it not been for the brave men of the Confederate Army? And does he recall the number of Red Negroes we had to execute to keep the rest peaceable?"_

 _The reporter avoids answering and asks another question, "If you win the 1921 election and took office, what would you do?"_

 _"We would make the country stronger than it ever was. Our Army would at least triple in size to make sure the Northern Eagle could never strike us again. We would bring back the traditions the Semmes Administration is intent on wiping away and we for damn sure would put the Negores back in their place."_

 _"Would-"_

 _"Mr. Chairman?"_

 _"What is it, Ferd?_

 _"Deputy Chairman Dresser would like to speak to you, sir."_

 _(sigh) "Alright, I'll be there in just a sec."_ -

The Redemption League's stance on race made it very popular to many white Confederates, especially low-income families in the Deep South and Texas. Their nationalistic and militaristic views also gave the League favorable attention east of the Mississippi River until the formation of the Conservative Party in 1924. The Conservatives more appealing philosophy, more moderate economical policies along with the strong nationalism and militaristic mindset that gave the Redemption League droves of followers took away the majority of the League's support throughout the mid and latter 1920s.

The League would see a surge of popularity when the Great Depression hit, enough to gain eleven seats in the House of Represenatives along with two in the Senate, but their dreams of future victory were dashed with President Martin's New Strategy Economics, which helped improve the poor economic conditions that had enabled the League to thrive. By the time the 1939 election year came around the Redemption League was a shell of its former self, with its membership diminished by over two thirds by the time John Nance Garner took office in 1940.

However when the Second Great War began in North America in the summer of 1941 Chairman Willy Knight and Deputy Chairman Ferdinand Koenig[1] were nothing if not oppurtunists. Despite their previous anti-American, pro-Confederate nationalism rhetoric, the Redemption League would work hand in hand with American forces in Occupied Confederate territory. The United States promised that when the Confederacy was defeated that the Redemption League would be put in power. Whether or not the Patriots would have actually done this if they had won the war, and whether they would truly be in control or mere Patriot puppets, are both debatable, but it convinced the RL to throw their full support in with the Patriots.

As the United States began to occupy large swathes of the Confederacy, the Patriot Party's hatred of Negores grew to almost match its anti-Semitism. The United States previosuly only had a few hundred thousand black citizens when the NPPA came to power in 1933, but with the occupation of Sequoyah, Virginia, Kentucky, the northern portions of the states of Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina as of early 1942 it saw that relatively small Negro population grow rapidly with over an estimated three million to three and a half million African-Confederates now under American occupation.

The Patriotic Guard by 1942 had its hands full exterminating its own minorities in the United States and Occupied Sandwich Islands, and did not have the manpower to properly expand its genocidal policies south of the Mason-Dixon Line unassisted. This is where the Redemption League came in. While at first the Redemptionists merely assisted with policing Negro neighborhoods, quickly made into ghettos by the PG and RL stalwarts, but this would soon change in late 1942 when orders came down from Philadelphia to begin exterminating the Negro population in the Occupied States.

To the surprise of everyone, including President McSweeney himself, the League's Chairman resisted this order. Willy Knight might have been white supremacist with a semi-fascist ideology but Knight never once thought of mass murdering those he deemed second-class residents. The Guard having grown tired of Knight's independence and defiance moved in and murdered the Texan politician in his League headquarters in downtown Richmond. The PG worried that it might have to eliminate the RL in its entirety and be forced to take up all of its duties but these worries were proved unfounded when Ferdinand Koenig agreed to be a much more compliant and cooperative ally. Koenig, after a quick purge of the Redemption League in the Occupied States, quickly went about enacting any and all orders from Philadelphia. Koenig's Redemption League instead of being partners with the Americans like Knight was instead became willing and accepting puppets of the United States.

The Redemption League in the Unoccupied States faced severe censure from the Confederate Government and Armed Forces when Knight and Koenig began assisting the Americans. But with Knight dead and Koenig's RL fully participating in mass murder the Redemption League was banned with its remaining leaders imprisoned. After this the remnant of the Redemptionists in the Unoccupied Confederacy left the League and by early 1943 the political party was by all intents and purposes extinct except for Koenig's murdering faction in American held parts of the CSA.

On a less grim note Willy Knight in his final days performed an act that made an otherwise loathsome figure in Confederate history into a controversial one. Despite his severe dislike of the Negro race and previous statements of "putting them in their place", Knight was horrified by the plans to exterminate the Negroes. It seemed McSweeney's orders to murder the African-Confederate population in such an inhumane, monstrous way struck a cord within the Chairman that, despite his own views on Negroes, he could not see them suffer such a fate. Pooling what limited resources he had available and putting like-minded RL members together, Knight was able to smuggle almost seven thousand African-Confederates, almost all of them women and children, from Patriot held Virginia and northern North Carolina to the safety of Confederate held central North Carolina.

President Potter, shortly after Knight's death, mentioned him in a speech to the nation, calling him "A vile man for most of his life, but in his last days became a decent man in the act of saving thousands of lives. He might be a Redemptionist and a traitor, but in his heart he was still a human being-unlike Koenig and the murderous Patriot bastards."

By early 1943 a concentration camp system would be formed in the Occupied States, principally run by Redemptionist stalwarts under the supervision of Patriotic Guard officers. While rumors of such atrocities drifted southward, it was only until 1944 that the full horrors would be revealed.

[1]Anthony Dresser, founder of the Freedom Party in 1917 and Deputy Chairman in the Redemption League from 1920-1922 (when the Freedom Party was amalgamated by the League), was unceremoniosuly kicked out of his position by Knight and Koenig who enacted a quiet but effective purge of the League, removing any elements of the League that were considered more Freedomite than Redemptionist. Koenig, although a former Freedomite, converted wholly to the Redemptionist ideology. He would be Knight's most loyal supporter until Knight's death in September of 1942. Dresser would die in May of 1924 of alcoholism a poor, alone and inbittered man.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: From Coast To Coast And Elections**

In the days before the first assassination attempt on McSweeney in October of 1922, the National Patriotic Party of America numbered 91,276 registered Party members. By October of 1925, it had grown to number 511,688 members. The NPPA had expanded greatly in just five years of existence, expanding beyond their original headquarters in a former, abandoned church to a much larger warehouse that had been refurbished and expanded upon to house the bureaucracy that organized and ran the Party. From only being established in Philadelphia and nearby cities, it now had a major presence in San Diego, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago, Seattle, Wichita, Columbus, Detroit, and Boston along with dozens of other major cities.

While the actual membership might have been just over five hundred thousand, there were millions who supported it either by financial donations or voting for it in local elections, and most did both. This would help in the House, Senate, and Presidential Elections of 1924. Through its tactics of terrorizing political opponents and brawling on the streets, disrupting their rallies and assemblies of opponents, alongside with hosting their own massive rallies, the NPPA made their voices be heard loud and clear throughout the country.

With the economy still dangerously fragile in 1924, and with much of the U.S. wealth going to its foreign enemies in yearly payments, the people of the United States began to hear and take heed of what McSweeney and his lackeys were saying. They wanted to blame others for their misfortune and the Patriots helped direct that anger and blame to the American minorities.

While McSweeney would lose the Presidential Election of 1924 to a Democrat (Calvin Coolidge from Massachusetts) he would perform extremely well, especially for it being his first Election that he participated in. Winning West New Mexico (3), Kansas (10), Missouri (18), Delaware (3), Washington State (7) and Ohio (24) for the Patriot Party he brought in a total of 65 electoral votes out of 357, just over a fifth of the Electoral College in his first campaign. A remarkable feat in American politics where traditionally only two parties dominated elections. This election it was dominated by the Patriots, the Republicans and the Democrats. The Socialists performed adequately, showing they were still a force in politics by securing long time Socialist stronghold Dakota (10), California (13), and Indiana (15) but lost their traditional powerbase of New York since the Uprising was particularly bloody there, making many voters choose Democrat. That state along with Pennsylvania gave the Democrats a clear lead, albeit closer than they had become accustomed to. The Republican Party performed better than it had been the past few elections and passed the Socialists for the first time but did not have the influence, money, or political stance to win against the larger and better organized Democrat Party.

But that was not all, the House Elections came in, securing the Patriots 27 House seats and when the Senate election results were announced the Patriots could add three senators to Congress (an Ohioan Senator, a Senator from Missouri and even one from McSweeney's home state of Kansas). Add to the already four House Representatives of 1922 and they had total 31 Representatives out of 301. Ten percent of the House in the Patriots hands in just several short years time scared many on the political left and center. Then the three new Senators to the two elected in 1922 (5 out of 56) and things were becoming worrying to many in the United States. The Elections of 1922 and 1924 showed the NPPA was powerful, committed and here to stay it seemed.

This gave the NPPA a strong presence in the United States Congress. A presense they would make felt to the others in Congress.

The Patriots would use this moderate force in Congress to push through several laws that were either beneficiary to the Party in several minor ways or put restrictions on immigrants and known homosexuals[1]. The NPPA did this by allying itself with a half dozen like-minded parties in Congress that were weak individually but united together formed a strong right-wing coalition in Congress. This right-wing coalition was also able to turn down the motion of re-admitting Utah into the Union in 1926, granting it back its statehood. The renewal of military occupation was extended for another ten years and in 1936 would be extended indefinitely under the McSweeney Administration.

Throughout the mid 1920s, McSweeney's fortunes would improve.[2] the Patriots would solidify their grip on border states of both the Confederacy and Canada, and extend deeper into the Midwest and New England. They thought it would be enough to secure victory. They were wrong.

While the Party was successful in setting up more offices throughout the country to better spread the Patriotic ideology, it failed to garner enough votes to win crucial electoral heavy states. In fact, the Party's position in the 1928 Presidential Election worsened despite having Oregon, Vermont and New Hampshire voting Patriot. This was because the state of Missouri switched from Patriot to Republican, bringing McSweeney's total electoral votes to 60, down eighteen electoral votes-A heavy blow to National Patriotism. Many in the Party became worried that the Patriots would go nowhere, and that they would become stuck as a second-tier party forever. The Congressional Elections were, if anything, even worse with the loss of twelve Congressman and two Senators.

The reasons for the Patriots decrease in popularity and voter turnout was principally due to the Confederate, British, and Canadian Governments suspending future monetary payments from the American Government as a sign of international friendship in early 1927. With the economy recovering and the hatred of its neighbors having ebbed with time the Patriots began to lose much of their support across the country. A large proportion of the Party's ranks, seeing that their rapid ascension had suddenly stalled and begun to decline, decided to leave while the "gettin' was good" to use a Southern term. It is estimated that the Patriots lost over one ninety-six thousand members in late 1928 up to the day before the Stock Market Clash of 1929, not including the average non-Party voter that favored he NPPA which numbered over a million, most likely closer to two million. This would be the first and only major net loss of membership in the Party's history.

After the payments to the Entente having ended hundreds of thousands of voters began looking for parties less extremist and more moderate and traditional to American democracy. The Republican Party began to grow quite fast in the late '20s and secured multiple Congressional seats in 1928 (many former Patriot seats) almost winning the Presidency but that went to Democrat candidate Herbert Hoover (no relation to Patriotic Guard Marshal J. Edgar Hoover). The Republicans were looking forward to the 1932 Election, an election that they might very well win. The Socialists lost even more political ground with Indiana swinging Democrat. Only Dakota and California remained Socialist by 1928.

The political landscape as of early 1929 looked like the Republicans or the Democrats would win the '32 Election. The NPPA and like minded parties began to stagnate and shrink as the national situation improved and the far left and far right began to sound like madmen instead sensible people. People beginning to settle for the center-right or center-left, prefering their more moderate platforms.

This would soon change when the Great Depression struck the world in mid 1929.

[1]There had been long been rumors that Patriotic Guard Marshal J. Edgar Hoover was a homosexual. Either the man wasn't or he was incredibly discreet and skilled at hiding it. Either way, what he did in the bedroom did not affect his enforcement of the Party's stance on homosexuals with dozens killed every year by both the PL and PG until the NPPA came to power. And from there it only got worse for them.*

[2]On a more personal level for the Butcher, McSweeney and his wife Abigail had their first two children in 1923, twin boys named Simon and Paul. Their daughter Susan would be born in 1925, with a third son, Adam, born in 1928. McSweeney would have two more girls (Evelyn and Annabeth in 1930 and 1931 respectively).


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: McSweeney's Rise To Power**

Excerpt from the autobiography of Chester Martin's 'America: A Nation in Chaos' (1951):

- _I remember, oh God, how I remember it all. All the chaos, the fear, the hatred of those times..._

 _It was the middle of 1929 when the Depression hit and it hit damn hard. My wife Rita and I were Socialists, she was more vocal than I, which would lead to disastrous results for us later on, but despite out political leanings, we began to buy stock during the early '20s. Socialists actively participating in a capitalist economy, a bit ironic and hypocritical, I'll admit that now, though I wouldn't necessarily then._

 _I mean, why not? It was practically free money, right? And it was. The money was decent, as well as welcoming, and we spent it on things for the house, or for good food and even the occasional vacation. Looking back I wished we had saved all that money in cash and put it under our mattress. At least then we would have had savings when the Market fell through. When the Market collapsed I was hesitant to sell my shares, I thought it was a hiccup or a scare not the early stages of a Depression. Hindsight is 20/20 it seems but at the time I didn't know any better._

 _Anyhow when the Depression hit, people became scared. Not worried, not annoyed, but fearful for their very lives. The country was only just getting back on its feet after the reparations to the Entente stopped and with the Crash all that money, all that hope, and all that promise... just gone in a few short weeks._

 _As I said earlier, I have been a Socialist, since the labor unrest in 1918 in fact, and despite our bad history I believe it had righted itself into a competent, honest party led by Mr. Blackford. I wanted to see Socialism come about in my country, I truly thought it would help us get past all the lies and manipulations of the wealthy elite. And many people thought as we did, especially after '29. But with the rise of the Socialist Party many other parties rose as well, some with worse intentions in mind._

 _One of them was the Patriotic Party. That assembly of thieves, murderers and racists was in the decline after the Election of '28. Rita predicted they would disappear by the Presidential Election of 1932. Turns out they would win it. In times of despair extremist parties gain the limelight, and the Patriotic Party already has a solid foundation in support and a nation-wide office set up._

 _Their growth was alarmingly fast. Within six months of the Crash they had almost a million registered Party members, with millions more across the nation saying they'd vote for them. Coming from a population of just over ninety million people in total, it was pretty daunting. I had co-workers at the time who before the Crash considered themselves good Democrats, Republicans, Socialists or even one of the multitude of minor local political parties. But by the time winter came around, I knew a lot of men greeted each other with their Bellamy Salute and enthusiastically bellowing "America!" or "Unity!," among other things._

 _My foreman, a veteran as was most adult men were at the time, was strictly apolitical, as it violated company policy. He had fired people before for bringing up politics or unions, I myself nearly got let go once. Before the Depression he fired a Patriot for various reasons, but once the NPPA became more popular he couldn't let any of the Patriot sympathizers go, despite their talk of politics on the job. By mid 1930, he was forced to hire the fired Patriot back and almost the entire work crew promised they would vote for McSweeney come November of '32. He did because I believed he or his family, most likely both, had been threatened._

 _It was a dark time. A time I kept my mouth shut for once and hoped the rest of the country had better sense than California. I turned out to be wrong. When McSweeney was elected I was admittedly scared but it wasn't until he took the Oath of Office that the fear really took hold in me._ -

In May of 1929 the Great Depression struck the world in all its horror. What began as minor quibbles in the economic market quickly became a disaster when Mexico was called upon to pay its massive debt to France, which it couldn't.

The ripples from there became tidal waves and much of the world would suffer terrible economic stagnation for years. The Entente were hit hard but would survive in fair condition after multiple economic policies and time took their effect. Germany and the United States would not. After paying years of repatriations both countries had very little economic recovery in the latter '20s, and when the Depression struck, it plunged at the heart of their markets. Both nations' economies became heavily inflated with the government in power faring quite poor and rapidly becoming unpopular.

Tensions across both countries were high, and many were looking for political parties that promised to solve all their national problems and bring them back to the world stage. There were dozens of organizations and political parties that promised that, but only two would come to power. The Nazis would come to power in Germany through the speeches and charisma of Hitler. The Patriots would come to power by playing on bigoted fears and intimidation. Both countries native population were fearful, afraid of what was happening to them, tired of being downtrodden, and ridiculed. The promises of strength, power and domination appealed to millions.

It was also during this time that McSweeney used the power of the wireless (called the radio throughout most of the world) in the United States. His fiery rhetoric reached millions without him having to be present, allowing the words of the Butcher to reach far and wide while he campaigned extensively throughout New England.

This paid off handsomely. From 1929 to 1932, the NPPA experienced major growth in membership and support. Through the coercion of the Patriotic Legion, the charismatic speeches by McSweeney and the well executed presidential campaign the Patriots would win their first, but not last, presidential election in November of 1932.

On a cool morning on January 20th, 1933, in front of the Powel House with over half a million in attendance, President-elect Gordon McSweeney would become President Gordon McSweeney of the United States of America. The Butcher was in power... and he intended to use it fully.


	10. Chapter 10

_Note: The third speech is courtesy of Schlitzkrieg, another member._

 **Chapter 10: Outspoken Hate**

The following speeches were recorded from 1929-1933 by the Patriotic Party Propaganda Committee. This would be the nucleus of the infamous Department of Public Information, directed by Secretary of Public Information Charles Coughlin, that would serve in McSweeney's New America. The Department of PubIn would stir up nationalist ideals, ethnic and racial bigotry as well as stirrings of anger towards certain religious organizations such as the Church of Latter-Day Saints. The rhetoric espoused by the Department convinced many Americans that what they were doing was encouraged by the Government, which it was, with the blessing of God. Its members would be notorious for twisting the truth and proclaiming the "Big Lie."

Speech in Columbus, Ohio in December 1929.  
Speaker: Gordon McSweeney  
Attendance: 160,000  
Documented by Party Correspondent for their local newspaper, _The Disciple_.

- _The day was fair and clear, an occasional puffy white cloud eschewed across the heaven but other than that there was nothing but the large expanse of blue._

Looking towards the crowd I feel pride bursting in my chest. Since the Depression hit attendance for rallies had risen significantly. Those featuring the Chairman himself skyrocketed. There were about 270,000 people in Columbus and over a hundred thousand of those waiting for the Chairman to speak were locals. The rest came from miles around to hear the American Savior.

In disciplined ranks of a hundred-by-ten a thousand Greenshirts stood at near military attention, behind them a hundred Blueshirts waited around and on the platform.

For some minutes there was the low mumbling of the crowd until the Greenshirts began to yell "Unity", "America" and "God Bless the United States". The crowd began to repeat the words and within a few minutes 160,000 people were chanting "Unity", "America", and "God Bless the United States" in that order. At the end of the third cycle of the people enthusiastically shouting those words McSweeney himself took the stage.

The crowd went wild with the shrill screams of excited women and the throaty yells of support from the men. The Chairman was clad in a Blueshirt like-esque uniform, with matching dark blue pants and shirt, a black tie dangling until put back into place in the secure confinements of the outer jacket he wore to help keep the chill at bay. The Medal of Honor hanged proudly upon his left breast, near the heart.

McSweeney looked relatively unremarkable with his reddish-brown hair and hazel eyes but he had a strong chin, a well sized nose, and forehead where one could see a scar he acquired in the Great War and a stare that was wintry. It was intimidating, full of anger and faith. It was two feelings many Americans shared and his emotions appealed to them, doubling theirs, and contributing to his charisma. As he took to the podium the cheering and clapping ebbed after he rose his hands to signal silence. The Greenshirts and Blueshirts instantly quieted themselves and stood at stiff attention in the face of their leader.

The crowd, undisciplined and many not registered members of the militaristic Party, took longer but they too became quiet. And then he spoke.

"My fellow Americans, countrymen, comrades, brothers and sisters I stand before you today and I see people in despair. Many of you are suffering from the Stock Market Crash, I can see it in your eyes, in your choice of clothing, in the haggard look about you.

"But do not feel shame! Do not, I beseech you. Instead feel blessed. For too long our country has been led to the darkness by incompetent Democrats, back-stabbing Socialists, and indecisive Republicans. Above all this was orchestrated by the Jews who thought they could blindly lead our nation to the abyss.

"But they failed, my friends! They failed! Whether intentional or by accident, they caused the Depression to come about by controlling international banking and moving multiple governments around like puppets. We have been led astray, but it is not too late to right ourselves.

"There is still hope for America, and that hope is you! Will you follow me to save our United States? Will you vote for me come November of 1932 and will you by the Grace of God support me in my endeavors to make us strong again? We will be respected as we once were before the War of Secession. Not only will we deal with our internal dissidents but also with our external rivals. The Dominion of Canada and the Confederacy will one day have to acknowledge our might and power.

"If not, well there are ways to make them believe we are the most powerful country in North America."

At that the cheering began again and arms rose in salute to the Chairman with bellows of "Unity" and "America" echoing across the large expanse where rally was being held. In the wind fluttered the American flag with the Party's Eagle with Crossed Sword clutching the Single Star Flag on the same level. With McSweeney stepping away from the microphone he saluted in the direction of the flags just as the Star-Spangled Banner began to play through the speakers. As a Party member for the past seven years my chest swelled with pride. Our time was coming, and it was fast approaching.

Speech in Los Angeles, California on February 13th, 1932  
Speaker: Charles Coughlin  
Attendance 130,000  
Documented by a reporter for the Democrat backed _Los Angeles Times_ in September of 1932.

- _Mr. Coughlin, the anti-Semite chief propagandist of the Patriots, takes to the podium with the roaring of over one hundred thousand men and women, generally of lower to middle class white families. I count well over a thousand of the notorious Greenshirts and about fifty of the bodyguard Blueshirts._

The former priest steps next to the podium and after a brief introduction by local Party Chief James Davis who speaks of the great strides the NPPA had made in California since the Depression hit Coughlin finally begins his tirade.

"They say revenge is sweet. If so, we had better prepare ourselves for its tart flavor now. For too long have the 'Allies' curbed our destiny. They clamp down on us economically, territorially and militarily. Since the War of Secession we have seen nothing but defeats in foreign wars and growing unrest from increased immigration and racial unrest.

"The Patriot Party promises a better future, a future where we reign supreme on this blessed continent. A future where a white American can stand tall and proud, with his chest out and his arms raised in triumph. A future where we will reclaim the states lost in wars past and a future where the Star-Spangled Banner flies high and mighty. A future where Socialists, Democrats, and Republicans will be powerless to interfere in the greater good the Patriots will bring. We promise a future where all our internal racial issues will be resolved… permanently."

Mr. Coughlin has a good voice for speech-making, and the Patriots do know how to run a rally, but their rhetoric is more of anger and revenge than actual politics. Distasteful and unconventional, but looking at the people around me who are more engaged with the Patriots than most others citizens are with their party of choice, it seems to me maybe the Democratic Party should be more unconventional. If we do not adapt and change with the times I fear we may lose.

Speech in Griswold Park, Erie, Pennsylvania on Monday, November 7th 1932

Speaker: Gordon McSweeney

Attendance: 100,000

Documented by the Pennsylvanian Patriot-backed newspaper, _The Holy Word_

My fellow Americans, I am blessed to stand before you this day. It means that we are on the verge of finally casting off the shackles we, as a nation, have been forced to wear for too long.

For three generations, our blessed United States have been surrounded on all sides, by enemies of both God and all things good. To the south, our former countrymen oppress us time and time again in the name of the Devil with the force of their arms. To the north, across this very great lake, the slatterns of Great Britain lurk with fists full of daggers to plunge into our backs the moment we turn. Together, they conspired to place their boots upon our necks when they made war upon us.

Had this scheming been just between those two appendages of darkness, I say, we would stand astride this continent like the Colossus over Rhodes, as God intended when He granted us our independence. If not for the enemies within, the enemies without would have found only misery and ruin against the arms of the United States. A nation truly united is necessary for our survival. The wily Jew will remain loyal no longer than the moment the next offer comes along. The Mormon will remain disloyal regardless of whatever gifts or enticements you offer him. The Negro makes himself a whore to his former owners, so much does he hate the United States and all that we stand for.

I say to you, no more shall the United States fragment and crumble in the face of aggression! Never again shall we lay prostrate at the feet of those who fancy themselves the lords of all Creation! I call to you, citizens of the United States, to truly unite! I call to you, who worship the one true Lord Jesus Christ, to follow His call and stand with your brothers! The time of reckoning draws ever nearer. Our enemies have not gone to sleep. They remain, waiting for the chance to attack again, to finish us off once and for all.

I call upon all good, God-fearing Americans to go out tomorrow to the polls and help me save our great nation. With your vote and the Lord's blessings, I and the National Patriotic Party of America will take us where we belong and avenge these long decades of humiliation and supplication. Thank you very much, and may God bless these United States of America.

Excerpt from Flora Blackford nee Hamburger's diary, published as the international bestseller " _McSweeney's America: Through the Eyes of the Victims_ " by her son Joshua Blackford in 1955.

- _I remember that day clearly. Snow swirled down; covering the Powel House, with hundreds of thousands crowding the streets, many people on local residents' lawns but no one seemed to care. It was an exciting, glorious day… for some._

 _For me it was as if I woke from a nightmare to find the dreams were in fact reality. McSweeney had been elected in last November and now he was taking in the oath of office. Revulsion fluttered inside me, but I could not let it show for there were Patriots and Patriot sympathizers and supporters everywhere._

 _They cheered wildly as first the Vice-President-elect William Dudley Pelley and grew more fanatical as McSweeney took the oath on a Bible. As the words "I do solemnly swear… that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States… and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States," were spoken aloud each phrase made my stomach turn. I felt sick that it had come to this._

 _With the Inauguration complete McSweeney made a speech, fervent and energetic as usual. I stayed for it, but I could not bear myself to listen that closely, no matter how much I knew that I should have. It was obvious what it would be about, the same as all the others made since 1920. Hate against America's 'internal enemies' while heavily hinting of eventual revenge against the British, the Canadians and principally against the Confederacy. I had protested the Great War before it even broke out, and I had protested the war when I was in Congress as well. It was a terrible struggle, yet it seemed McSweeney was mad enough to want another. And the sad thing is, people were not only supporting him, they were encouraging him. America_ wanted _another war, a war to_ win, _and the Patriots were the only major party exclaiming that. They knew how to manipulate people's nationalism and emotions to drive their own efforts and policies through. It was sickening, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Since the Red Uprising saw most Socialists lose their Congressional seats, I lost what little power and influence I had gained._

 _Now I was a nobody. A nobody who happened to belong to a religion McSweeney detested._

 _I remembering closing my eyes, willing the tears not to fall and failing at that, listening to his madness not only being spoken but ch_ eered on, and every word and yell of approval made me colder than the snow ever could.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: You Reap What You Sow**

 _Excerpts from A Deal of Two Devils: German-American Relations of the early 20th century  
By Isaac Reisen  
New York University, New York, United States of America, 2008  
_  
Close allies since the end of the Second Mexican War, the once longstanding alliance between United States and Germany, the predecessor to the Triple Alliance of the Great War and then the Pact of Steel/the Axis of the Second Great War, was formed mostly out of necessity after the Second Mexican War – the United States, following the Second Mexican War, was becoming an increasingly weak nation surrounded by three foreign powers, the British, French and Confederates, while the German Empire, which had been born after the fall of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, was also in danger of encirclement from her neighbors of France, Russia and Austria-Hungary. As a result, the two powers found incentives to work together and protect each other from foreign threats.

The alliance, originally proposed by the military attaché to the German embassy in Washington, D.C (then the capital of the United States until it was moved to Philadelphia during the Second Mexican War) Alfred von Schlieffen and German ambassador Kurd von Schlözer to U.S President James G. Blaine, first took hold after numerous friendship and trade treaties between the two powers were signed, and the alliance was firmly established on July 4, 1882, when Blaine formally announced the alliance in Philadelphia alongside the German Empire's Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. From then on, the two powers would cooperate in almost every way possible. American staff officers were selected for military training in Germany, while German-manufactured weapons and hardware such as Pickelhaubes (spiked helmets) and aircraft (the cooperation between the Junkers and Curtiss aircraft companies is a good example of this). Most of all, though, this alliance would create a sense of security for the two nations in order to ward off further aggression and send a message to London, Paris and Richmond that a second alliance to counter their military prestige had been established.

After the bomb attack on Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand's car on June 28, 1914, the United States, then under the witty and canny President Theodore Roosevelt, declared her intentions to support her allies (Germany and Austria-Hungary) through their times of trouble. Confederate President Wilson affirmed the same with regards to his nation's allies, the United Kingdom and France. When war broke out a month later, the German and American navies fought together in the Atlantic, and numerous American staff officers who were part as part of the two nations' exchange program participated in the European Western Front. Both nations also shared new developments such as weaponized poison gases such as chlorine gas and mustard gas, as well as tanks, though neither was able to utilize them the way that the Entente did in the later parts of the war. When peace came to both continents on November 11, 1918, it was reported that in the Midwest, which had a large German-American population, there was spontaneous grief and anger across the entire region, and it was there that the first "stab-in-the-back" theories began taking hold in America.

Although German-American cooperation was minimal in the 1920s, by the time the McSweeney and Hitler regimes began taking power, the respective leaders of both nations sought to once again solidify the long-established alliance that had marked friendship between the two powers. This idea heavily appealed towards the American populace, and was supported by groups like the German-American Bund, the One America Committee, and the jingoistic elements of the National Patriotic Party.

On June 29, 1934, the German Chancellor and Fuhrer-to-be arrived just outside New York on the massive German airship _Graf Zeppelin_ , and was greeted by the Patriotic governor, Nathan L. Miller, and Vice President Pelley. He then took part in a tour of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, visiting Boston and Washington, D.C., before meeting President McSweeney in person on the Fourth of July, 1934, in Philadelphia. That evening, both leaders were treated with the largest fireworks display ever at the time, with the skies over the city being marked by the cross, the eagle, and the swastika, symbols of the renewed alliance between the two powers. The next day was marked by numerous negotiations between both dictators that officially restored the once-strong cooperation of Germany and the United States, and laid the first foundations for the Axis Powers.

 _Excerpt of an exclusive Columbia Wireless interview conducted by Robert Henry Best with President McSweeney on July 8, 1934, shortly after Hitler's departure from the United States  
_  
-What are your thoughts about Chancellor Hitler?  
What I think about the man? I like to think that the two of us have a lot in common with each other, and I am certain he thinks likewise. In our common goals for our two great nations to regain their places in the sun and eradicate the parasitic influences of the Jew and the Communist, it is only right that we continue working together to do so, and at the same time continue to fight back against our enemies. The Chancellor and I, see, have minds not much different from when Bismarck and Blaine, despite the Republican bastard the latter was, first managed to, with the grace of God, bring our two great nations together, but alas, that was a bygone age, and today the United States lives in a world surrounded by enemies. If we are to escape that encirclement, Chancellor Hitler, thank the Lord, will be the one to break down the walls known as the Entente, and we can do the rest. It's like a house made of cards, really – remove one card and the entire house falls down, right? Same here – if we can remove one of our many enemies, be it Britain, France, Russia, Canada, the Confederacy or Japan, their nations will crumble with their pathetic compact, and the United States and Germany will have regained their rightful places as unquestionable world hegemons.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Back with a Vengeance**

One of the most notorious appointments of McSweeney's during the war was the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, Henry Ford. Already famous as the pioneer of the assembly line and a renowned entrepreneur and businessman with one of the largest auto companies in the world bearing his name, his resourcefulness and efforts in keeping the economy in Detroit alive through its car-manufacturing sector gave him even more fame.

Ford had also been supportive of the National Patriotic Party of America from its inception, as his extremely racist and anti-Communist views were more than compatible with those of the Patriots. He began actively promoting the Party, and effectively made the Ford Motor Company part of its financial arm. Profits from sales and investments would go towards sponsoring McSweeney's campaigning, and in response Ford himself was guaranteed a position if and when the demagogue became President.

True to his word, Ford did gain an appointment in the new government. Under him, he was able to create an even larger company by implicating his company's rival General Motors as an organization dedicated to destroying America by supporting Jews (despite a lot of evidence proving the contrary), before shutting down the company and absorbing it into Ford. This effectively created a monopoly dominated by Ford in the United States auto market, and was an instrumental part of the plan to rearm the United States.

Like in Germany, new factories that were created throughout the country were built not only to create cars, but also tractors and heavy machinery to further mechanize the United States economy and make it less dependent on less efficient, traditional methods. However, these factories were also used to disguise the acquisition of new tanks, which had been prohibited by the arms limitations treaties inflicted on the U.S after the Great War. Similarly, factories that were ostensibly for innocent-seeming purposes were in fact underground arms factories, as the United States began gearing for another war.

Additionally, the United States, after the development of the airplane by the Wright Brothers in 1904, was a major player in the young and fledgling aviation industry, and had been a pioneer in the development of the airplane as a weapon of war. However, after the end of the war and the marked fall of the U.S economy, there was a general sense of discouragement for the pursuit of aviation as her Entente enemies prohibited the country from conducting airplane manufacturing and development. To further rub salt in the wound, the United States had been working on an aircraft carrier, the USS _Remembrance_ , when the war abruptly ended in defeat, and it was forced to halt construction and turn it over to the Royal Navy.

McSweeney essentially reversed this by recruiting the pioneering aviator Charles A. Lindbergh, another renowned supporter of the NPPA, who was more than happy to provide his expertise on airplanes during his tenure as an airmail pilot and as the man who had flown solo across the Atlantic from New York to Paris in 1928. Acting as the administration's military liaison to the "Big Three" airplane companies of Boeing, Curtiss and Wright, he oversaw the development of many new innovative designs for aircraft, including the first prototypes for jet aircraft, and the expansion of the civilian airline services to allow American aviation to take off once more. He also became part of the German-American weapons sharing program and visited Germany on a consistent basis in the 1930s, meeting with _Reichsmarshall_ Hermann Goring on many occasions, and proving instrumental in allowing the American Big Three to cooperate with the German companies of Junkers, Messerschmitt and Heinkel.

As for arms themselves, although McSweeney had taken an interest in his German counterpart's designs for the assault rifle and submachine gun, the two nations were unable to formulate a plausible deal that wouldn't arouse the interests of the Entente and allow the United States Army to be fully equipped with those weapons. As a result, instead of the United States Army being able to acquire fantastical weapons like the Wehrmacht had for all of its soldiers, the mainstay of the U.S Army for the last thirty or so years, starting from 1937, the M1903 Springfield bolt-action rifle, was gradually phased out over a five-year period to be replaced by the M1936 Dickens self-loading rifle. Named after Springfield Armory weapons engineer Marcus Dickens, it was the culmination of the visions of many gunsmiths in the 1920s and 30s, surpassing the capabilities of all standard-issue military rifles at the time, including the German Karabiner 98 (the successor to the antiquated Gewehr 98 used by the German Empire and Weimar Republic until 1935), the Confederate Tredegar and the British Lee-Enfield. Unlike most service rifles, which featured five round fixed magazines, the Dickens featured ten round detachable magazines, and a notably higher rate of fire of thirty five to forty rounds per minute. It thereby gave the Army and Marines a weapon that would allow it to, in the words of the Butcher, "cut down our enemies instantaneously in a way not seen since Hiram Maxim's invention annihilated the limeys and Canucks at the Teton." The Dickens, would, therefore, remain unmatched until the introduction of the self-loading Garand rifle into the British, Canadian and Confederate militaries.

In spite of this, like Germany, the Navy remained somewhat neglected. Although McSweeney had believed in the correctness of President Alfred Mahan's theories that a nation's power depended on its ability to project naval force around the world, he also believed that the United States needed to first win the land war before concerning itself with subjugating the rest of the world. In addition, hiding the reconstruction of the Navy would be an even bigger challenge. As a result, the United States Navy grew to a lesser degree than its other branches, though through diplomatic maneuvering which led to an easing of these limitations by UK Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, it did manage to circumvent some of the limitations the Entente had placed, and was able to commission two full-sized aircraft carriers, in addition to half a dozen smaller "babytop" escort carriers and four new battleships. Submarines were not as heavily prioritized, however, though Germany would sell seven U-boats to the United States in exchange for two escort carriers.

These developments all allowed the United States to once more rearm itself, albeit covertly, and allowed it to regain its position as the dominant military power in North America, although it would not be until the Mormon Pacification, the Spanish and Mexican Civil Wars, and finally the outbreak of the Second Great War that it would be able to be properly put to the test.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: The Center Cannot Hold**

It was no secret that Gordon McSweeney hated Jews, Socialists and other groups which he accused of attempting to undermine the United States government, with a passion, and utilized many of his resources to purge them. However, it was how he was able to do so which was kept under the public eye for a long time and only being revealed shortly after the U.S presidential election of 1952 and inauguration of Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. as President of the United States. The opening of the National Archives provided historians a new look into the execution of the purges, which took the lives of millions.

The first stage of the process, which was largely reminiscent of the Enabling Laws which gave Hitler unlimited dictatorial powers in Germany during his brief tenure as Chancellor, was the Executive Law of 1933, which essentially rendered the United States federal government's power almost completely concentrated into the executive branch, which by then was almost completely under the power of McSweeney and the NPPA. The legislative and judicial branches would now be subjected only to the power of McSweeney and the executive himself. Supreme Court justices could now be removed by the president himself as well. Then, to further remove any elements McSweeney deemed threats to the nation (or his power), he ordered his most loyal followers to conduct a purge of the government. On December 31, 1933, just one day after the end of the Night of the Long Knives in Germany, the newly formed Directorate of National Security and Safety (DNSS) under Luther Bliss undertook a mass arrest of thousands of activists, politicians and other high-status figures in the United States who had opposed the NPPA. Among the most notable executions included the prominent Socialist New York Senator Franklin Delano Roosevelt (who was also a distant cousin to Teddy Roosevelt), retired Socialist Party leader and Dakotan Representative Hosea Blackford, and anti-NPPA wireless show hosts Hank Wallace and Walter Winchell.

Unlike the Night of the Long Knives, which saw the death of the Nazi SA (Stormtroopers), and its replacement by the Waffen-SS, the Patriotic Legion remained a prominent organization of the Party, and at the behest of the newly appointed Chief of the General Staff, General Daniel MacArthur. MacArthur, a close confidant of McSweeney and former PL member, supported the organization eventually being folded into the Armed Forces, and was also against any notions of removing PL commander Virgil Effinger, and although McSweeney had previously suspected MacArthur and Effinger as potential threats to his power, the former's devoutness to the National Patriotic Party and him being regarded well by McSweeney and many other Party members ensured that both could survive and retain their posts. Then, much to the chagrin of high-ranking field officers like General Irving Morrell, the Patriotic Legion was given a new life as a national gendarmerie force, while the Patriotic Guard became its own special force of the best soldiers the U.S had to offer, with those who joined it being given very intensive training in marksmanship, physical skills and loyalty, with such levels of rigorousness being unmatched even by the Marines. These NPPA soldiers were known as the Eagle Legions, and would see extensive combat in the Second Great War.

The next couple of years following the New Years' Eve Purge were marked by further consolidations of power within the Butcher's grasp. In 1934, Socialists protesting the new laws in Chicago were brutally slaughtered by the Patriotic Legion, and afterwards, by falsifying claims of violence initiated by "the rabble-rousing anti-American Judaic animals called the Socialists", the largely NPPA-controlled Congress, with the blessing of McSweeney, successfully passed the Acts of Treason and Sedition, which expanded the original Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 by completely banning the three other pre-existing major political parties in the United States and thousands of other political groups. This meant that by the midterm elections in 1935 the NPPA had gained nearly full control over Congress, and had the ability to pass any laws it desired without any opposition, except perhaps by the Butcher himself.

Immigration policies took an even more discriminatory turn, too. The United States had remained a favorite destination of migrants leaving Eastern Europe and Asia, and because racial attitudes of the time were still very hostile towards Slavic and Asian peoples, there was enormous appeal for the borders to be restricted even further. Although there had previously been numerous attempts to push through legislation which would set specific and low immigration quotas for Eastern Europeans and Asians, all of these attempts had failed, for the interests of the nation were not in isolating foreign minorities, but defeating her enemies. However, the NPPA had run on a platform influenced by anti-foreign ideals, and indeed many of its highest-ranking members were supportive of Nazi-esque policies of a "white America for white Americans". McSweeney was also suspicious of many foreigners, as he believed that they could be a potential fifth column. As a result, Congress was able to force through new laws which restricted the flow of immigration into the United States from Eastern Europe and Asia to no more than minimal triple digits per year, and all Jews were barred from applying. Additionally, a blacklist of many people prevented any further exposure of the American people to Socialism and Communism.

As for the African-Americans, McSweeney was very conflicted on the issue. One wing of the Party supported ostracizing them from American society as well, and this ideal was championed by Vice President Pelley, Secretary of Commerce and Labor Ford, and other high-ranking administration members. The other wing, led by Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson, supported allowing African-American migrants from the Confederate States into the U.S. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, McSweeney came up with a compromise. Although he had no real love for the Negroes, and was unsympathetic towards their struggles in the Red Rebellion, the Butcher privately expressed his contempt at the treatment of blacks by the C.S during the Great War, and stated how he had hoped they could receive salvation from their northern neighbor (a truly hypocritical indication of black vs. white morality, as he felt completely otherwise towards Jews and Mormons in his country). As a result, following extensive private meetings with representatives of Negroes from the C.S, the United States government established a new policy: any and all African-Americans wishing to leave the C.S were welcome to do so, provided they renounced any association to the Communist ideal, and accepted limited as opposed to full citizenship. Needless to say, few Negroes took the U.S up on the offer – from a population of around 10 million, only 3,000 African-Americans are recorded to have left the C.S.A, thanks to the relaxed racial policies of the C.S government and the Conservative Party during the 1930s.

These laws, which were able to effectively destroy the United States' longtime system of the federal republic and replace it with a heavily authoritarian, racist and oligarchical dictatorship, were not always received positively. By 1936 underground-organized resistance in the country had taken form in several parts of the country, and opposition to the NPPA's policies was becoming present in some places. Organizations ranging from the Catholic Church to the Democratic Party to even one or two Communist movements in California had begun waging their own campaigns against the Patriots, and in doing so hoped to achieve a variety of goals, though most hoped for the restoration of the United States republic. Needless to say, the reaction against these groups was swift. Although support for these groups was very minimal, out of a combination of fear and fanatical support for the NPPA among the general populace, the DNSS would constantly harangue and harass people suspected to be part of these movements, and would brutally crack down on any organized rallies, even if they were nonviolent. In one such instance, in 1937 a meeting among Democratic Party leaders in the Pennsylvanian countryside was suddenly pounced upon by DNSS operatives, and the men, who included former Chief Justice Cicero Pittman, were publicly mowed down by machine guns outside Independence Hall.

Plots to overthrow the Butcher, like in Nazi Germany, also took place many times, and all of them failed. The attempted assassination of McSweeney by David Hamburger in 1922 had provoked many fears for the then-Party Chairman's safety, and this had been one reason for the creation of the Patriotic Guard. When the NPPA took power in 1933, a specialized and highly trained branch of the PG was set aside as McSweeney's personal guard, and rather bluntly called the Presidential Cohort. The menacing uniforms, appearances, tactics and all-rounded skills of these men dissuaded many attempts to take the Butcher's life. This did not, however, prevent all from taking place. In February 1935, an auto parked on a railway track when McSweeney was taking a train passing through that area on the Ohio-Indiana border was towed away by authorities barely 5 minutes before the train passed through, and it was later revealed that the auto had been parked there with the intent to derail the train and possibly kill the President. In December 1935 a young Italian migrant named Giuseppe Zangara attempted to assassinate the President by shooting him during a visit to Trenton, New Jersey – the gun misfired and, in a fashion similar to Andrew Jackson's response to his attempted murder by Richard Lawrence a century before, the dictator personally leapt on his would-be killer and beat him several times before he was carried away by Legionnaires and the police. The latter event secured a status among the American populace as McSweeney being unbeatable by all except death itself.

However, it was only after the attempted assassination of the Butcher and putsch of the Utah state government by radical Mormons in February 1937 during his re-election tour that brought upon the worst reaction of all…


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14: The Second Utah War**

From 1882 until 1937, Utah was placed under a military government after attempts by Mormons to secede from the United States in the midst of the Second Mexican War. While the rebellion failed, the U.S government took huge strides to ensure the Mormons would never get their independence, seeing them as godforsaken pagans and polygamists, and ruled the state with an "us against them" mentality, making huge distinctions between Mormons and gentiles (a term often used to define non-Mormons in the state) – under the first military governor, John Pope, and his adjudant, future General George Armstrong Custer, many influential Mormon leaders, including John Taylor, the 3rd President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were hanged, and anybody suspected of polygamy was arrested and forced to renounce his faith. Many Mormons were ostracized and anyone of high affluence or influence, in addition to those seeking to enter governmental or bureaucratic positions, had to pledge separate allegiances of loyalty to the United States. Such discriminatory practices, however, only served to embolden the Mormon freedom movement further, and the state broke out into open rebellion in the Great War.

While the United States and Confederate States were locked in the stalemate of trench warfare, in 1915 Mormon radicals began to receive covert shipments of weaponry from the United Kingdom and Canada, with both nations hoping to stir up chaos within the U.S and ensure an easier victory for the Entente. The uprising began around Easter 1915, upsetting the plans for a large U.S springboard offensive into the contentious and strategically vital Kentucky by forcing U.S President Theodore Roosevelt and Army Chief of Staff Leonard Wood to transfer two divisions used by General George Custer, now in command of the U.S forces invading Kentucky, to quell the uprising. Under Major General Alonzo Kent [1], U.S forces invading from the east of the state saw themselves getting bogged down by an enemy who fought much more fanatically and ferociously than the British, Canadians or Confederates did, and gave no quarter to the U.S Army, which was constantly hampered by the Mormons' surprising deftness in handling explosives – mortar showers were not uncommon on open ground and in cities, and one major incident at the final battle in Ogden saw a large mine detonated under the American lines, crippling an entire division and further disrupting U.S plans for the other theatres. Nonetheless, the rebellion was put down, but at a great cost, which played a part in losing the United States the war.

It was during the Utah Campaign that Gordon McSweeney himself fought. Reports from his superiors during his time in the Army depicted him as a highly religious and brutal yet loyal and courageous soldier on the front lines, with an almost fanatical devotion to the Presbyterian faith, the United States and the Remembrance ideology. He was particularly infamous on both sides for his highly effective usage of a flamethrower, including numerous instances where he charged the Mormon lines and burned his enemies to a crisp while screaming praises to God and Jesus alongside patriotic American slogans, with great demoralizing effect to his foes. Although the rebellion was put down, it instilled a fierce hatred of Mormons in the dictator-to-be, as not only had he lost numerous friends in the campaign, he blamed the Mormons for the United States' defeat and the Treaty of Trenton, in addition to Socialists, Jews, the United Kingdom, Canada and especially the Confederacy. As a result, by the time he had come to power he was a very feared household name in the state, and many groups saw fit to be rid of him as soon as possible.

After the Great War, U.S Army generals, directly appointed by Philadelphia, were appointed to rule Utah as military governors from a bunker complex under the ruins of the Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, as a sort of middle finger to the Mormon faith as a whole. Kent would be the first military governor of the state from 1918 to 1924, followed by General John L. Hines, who had previously commanded the U.S forces on the New Mexico-Sonora Front. Hines, who had previously sought to reform the state apparatus and begin normalizing the political situation, would fall to an assassin in 1929, shortly after Black Monday saw the collapse of world economies and the Great Depression begin in its earnest. He was succeeded by his adjutant, Major General Peyton C. March, who resumed the practice of keeping the Mormon populace on a tight leash and scrapped any immediate plans for the withdrawal of the military occupation. This made many more Mormons, who had been looking forwards to the end of the long and sometimes brutal occupation, begin to see no other way than to fight, and after Gordon McSweeney was elected to power, in 1936, rebel factions, united under influential LDS Church leader Nephi Pratt [2], coalesced to form the Holy Army of Deseret.

The attempt on McSweeney's life by Mormon radicals in 1937 was made to coincide with a spontaneous armed uprising by a coalition of extremist militant Mormon groups seeking independence of a Mormon state from the United States. In the last days of January 1937, rebels armed with a mixture of Great War-era armaments and improvised weapons attacked the military occupational forces in Utah. In the first known auto bomb attack to ever take place, Governor-General March was killed in the chaos of the U.S Army evacuation of Salt Lake City as a full-scale insurrection and violence swept the city. Heber Young, the city's moderate mayor and a descendant of former LDS Church President and Utah Governor Brigham Young, was also injured in the attack, but was forced to receive medical treatment in Canada on the grounds of his faith [3]. Within a few days, U.S occupational authorities had been driven out of many of Utah's major cities in the north, but had managed to hold their own in the rather more loyal center, east and south.

The outbreak of conflict only served to embolden the Patriot movement even further. On subsequent speaking tours and rallies, the dictator made no effort to contain any sort of secrecy regarding his intent to do harm to the Mormons of Utah, and ordered the redeployment of thousands of American infantry to the rebellious state to restore order and put down the insurrection. Such a task, however, was easier said than done. The Holy Army of Deseret had received a rather impressive armory of weapons smuggled from Canada during the Great War that were nonetheless beginning to show signs of age and wear from over twenty years of lack of usage. Even with the odds stacked against them, however, they still encouraged many people to join their ranks, and so many dedicated Mormon men and even some women and gentiles joined the clandestine armed force. However, many more declined and chose to stay away. It would prove to be a costly decision made by them.

In the days following the attacks, McSweeney, through Secretary of State Stimson, sent feelers to the governments of the United Kingdom, France, Canada and the Confederate States requesting easing or even a possible repeal of the arms restrictions set in the Treaty of Trenton to enable the United States to destroy the rebellion. With most senior leaders in London, Paris, Richmond and Ottawa not seeing any particular use for Mormons and at the same time somewhat sympathetic towards and understanding the problem faced by Philadelphia (with the notable exception of then-Secretary of State Clarence Potter of the Confederate States being the only real dissenting voice), it was agreed on February 14, 1937, to allow the easing of the Treaty of Trenton and to grant the United States access to tanks and military airplanes, in addition to a further easing of reparations.

By mid-March, 1937, the United States sent its first tanks and aircraft into battle for the first time since the Great War. The newly unveiled Mark II Custer tanks were massed along the state border and in strategic areas still held and secured by U.S forces. Hastily constructed airbases in Colorado, Wyoming and central Utah housed nearly a hundred newly unveiled Wright-27 fighter planes, which would be used to provide close air support. On Easter Sunday, March 28, 1937, thousands of such tanks spearheaded a massive invasion into northern Utah. Taking a page from his Confederate enemies' book from the Great War, Chief of the General Staff Daniel MacArthur, with some advice from his adjutant, Colonel Abner Dowling [4], drafted a plan for a three-pronged invasion of rebel-controlled Utah from Moab from the east, the Wyoming and Idaho borders from the north, and Nephi from the south. The plan worked better than expected, as the Mormon defenders were very much caught off guard by just how much heavy machinery the United States Army could field against them, and the United States being able to field fast yet deadly military aircraft which could serve for purposes ranging from scouting to air support, while the Mormons merely had a few hastily-converted biplanes, did not help their situation at all. Despite this, the Holy Army of Deseret fought fanatically, and by way of creating auto bombs out of improvised vehicles, wreaked havoc among U.S supply lines. Additionally, the practice of people bombs was created to deadly effect, as men and even women with many tons of deadly explosives strapped to their bodies were sent to "surrender" to U.S Army forces, then blow themselves up and take as many soldiers with them as they could. Even so, the U.S Army managed to stop such attacks taking place rather quickly by taking a different page from a different adversary's book.

The idea of the concentration camp dates back to the Second Boer War of 1899 to 1902, when the British Army rounded up thousands of Boers and Black Africans and interned them in large prison facilities with squalid conditions. In such camps, as many as 26,000 Boers and 100,000 Black Africans died due to the poor conditions inside, which included cramping, starvation, lack of hygiene and disease. President McSweeney, with the approval of the commander of the Patriotic Guard J. Edgar Hoover and now Secretary of War Virgil Effinger [5], approved of the use of such measures to contain the Mormons until further notice. Across the state, Mormons in U.S-controlled areas were rounded up and sent to the first of numerous concentration camp facilities built behind the frontlines, where they were kept in conditions arguably worse than those in the Second Boer War – Patriotic Guard commandants were ordered to be cruel to noncompliant internees, and over 5,000 men, women and children died within the first month of the program's commencement.

Nonetheless, the United States Army's relentless drive on the separatists bore fruit. On April 11, 1937, the United States Army successfully captured Salt Lake City, but not after numerous auto bomb and people bomb attacks, in addition to use of high-powered improvised explosives against American forces, took the lives of over two thousand American troops. In response, McSweeney ordered the euphoric yet battered armies in the city to pay back their comrades' losses in blood, sweat and tears. The result was a systematic three-day orgy of violence by the United States Army in the city as they rounded up and shot, raped or maimed thousands of people, regardless of whether they were Mormon or gentile, man or woman, young or old. Although some commanders had attempted to resist such calls, many younger troops, who had been born in the 1910s, were eagerly eating up Patriotic Party propaganda and were egged on or possibly even coerced by supervising Patriotic Guard troopers, conducted their actions without let, hindrance or remorse. By the end of the three-day Salt Lake City Massacre, over 90,000 people, nearly 70% of the city's pre-war population, had been killed, with another 10,000 injured or maimed. The almost instantaneous and immediate coverup resulting from this ensured that no word about such atrocities would get out to the world.

Not yet, at least.

Meanwhile, the eastern spearhead, commanded by Major General Irving Morrell, had managed to successfully reach final bastion of resistance at Provo and linked with the northern attack force led by Brigadier General George Emerson Leach, and together sieged the city. The nine-day siege saw the destruction of much of the city, and broke the back of the Mormon resistance. However, in the immediate aftermath of the battle, after President McSweeney ordered similar "vengeance in blood" in the city, the order was resisted by Morrell, who, despite being an unabashed patriot to his country, had notably distanced himself from the NPPA, and saw McSweeney's commands as being disgraceful and inhumane, and as such ordered instead that civilians and prisoners should be treated fairly. Although the action was never reported to Powel House, it played a huge role in ensuring Provo stayed relatively quiet after the Second Utah War.

Nonetheless, the third attempt at rebellion against the United States' authority by the Mormons was enough for the Butcher. On May 10, 1937, by executive order, all Mormons were stripped of their United States citizenship, and were forced to live under a system reminiscent to Confederate racial policy to Negroes between 1882 (the abolition of slavery in the C.S) and the 1930s. All Mormons, regardless of whether they had been loyal or hostile to the United States, were forced to carry passbooks ascertaining their status, and wore badges with the abbreviation "LDS" on them to distinguish themselves from everybody else [6]. This was the beginning of the Mormon Pacification.

[1] Fictional character. Basically served in the same capacity as in the books.  
[2] A fictional character from "The Victorious Opposition" serving as a Utah Representative and shown engaging in fisticuffs with Barry Goldwater while Flora looked on.  
[3] Young, a fictional character also from the books, has his role somewhat altered here. He'll play a major role in re-establishing the LDS Church later on.  
[4] We'll see more from Dowling later on.  
[5] Not mentioned in the last update, but Effinger gets a promotion to Secretary of War as compensation for his organization being merged with Hoover's.  
[6] Basically like the yellow Star of David that Jews were forced to wear, but adapted for the Mormons.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: A Sea of Fire**

The end of the Second Utah War left the United States with, in the words of Chief of General Staff Daniel MacArthur, "too many Mormons, Jews and Reds and not enough places to send them." State Department officials soon began clamoring for a solution to this problem by sending them to an isolated region, one so far away from the United States to prevent them from causing a threat to the security of the state again.

The obvious choice was the Sandwich Islands. A British protectorate since 1897, the Sandwich Islands, otherwise known as Hawaii, had previously been conquered by the United States early in the Great War before they were liberated just prior to the signing of the Treaty of Trenton. They were considered strategically vital to the United States' naval campaigns, as they had been an important stronghold that connected the United Kingdom, Canada and the Confederate States to their main Asian ally, the Empire of Japan. By severing such a vital connection to the Pacific, the Royal Navy would be hampered in its abilities to project naval force, and would have to rely on its less militarily powerful Canadian dominion and its sometimes unreliable Japanese ally. Not only that, the islands were also considered a major stepping stone for the United States in their abilities to expand their naval power into the Pacific, as without a mid-Pacific resupply base, the U.S Navy would be unable to project power past the West Coast. Thus the islands were considered a vital strategic asset for the United States in the eventuality of war in the future, and the War Department labeled them as "needed to be seized at all costs".

The acquisition of the Sandwich Islands by the United States would have led to the mass deportation of Jews, Mormons and socialists to the islands, with certain islands being set aside for certain groups. Jews were to be deported to Hawaii, otherwise known as the Big Island, while Mormons were to be sent to the islands of Maui and Lanai, while Kauai, Molokai and Niihau were set aside for political prisoners and socialists. On each of the islands, Patriotic Guard garrisons were to be stationed in settlements and labor facilities, while a sizable garrison of United States Army infantry, tanks and armored vehicles would be stationed to keep the islands a de facto police state. Such methods, according to German-born Secretary of the Interior Fritz Kuhn, would enable the pacification of the "Zionist-Marxist-Mormon Conspiracy against Germany and America". The plan would later be adapted by the Nazi regime as the basis for the Madagascar Plan, the planned deportment of European Jews to the African island of Madagascar.

The plan never came to fruition for obvious reasons. For one, the Sandwich Islands themselves were not even in the possession of the United States, and it appeared they would not be for the long term, despite such claims to the contrary by the NPPA propaganda machine and even Secretary of Defense Effinger. To seize them would require conflict or a trade, and there was no way the United Kingdom would simply give up an extremely valuable overseas possession to a hostile power. Additionally, the costs of rounding up and deporting all the people specified for relocation were astronomical, as lots of resources would be needed to ship so many people across the sea. The plan was scrapped after the General Staff deemed it unfeasible. Other plans to send them to Canada's frozen north, Patagonia, the USSR or even to the Dominican Republic never came to fruition for similar reasons.

The Dominican option, in fact, proved most controversial due to major diplomatic repercussions after the election of Sténio Vincent and the Haitian National Party to power in 1934. A heavy-handed, authoritarian leader who had fought against the Entente during the Anglo-Confederate occupation of Haiti throughout the war, Vincent was a highly nationalist and revanchist leader who developed a largely anti-white racial policy but re-aligned himself with the United States to ensure that his country would not be invaded again. On the other side of Hispaniola, Rafael Trujillo, a similarly brutal dictator whose policies were by and large anti-Haitian and anti-African, led the Dominican Republic. Both leaders did not get along well with each other, and both had endorsed plans for what amounted to Lebensraum on Hispaniola – in Haiti's case, the plan involved the invasion and annexation of the Dominican Republic and the subsequent ethnic cleansing of non-African people in the country, whereas the Dominican plan called for a political union between both countries dominated by Ciudad Trujillo (Santo Domingo) and implementation of harsh segregation against Haiti's Afro-Caribeno population. Ultimately the main controversy stemmed from the fact that whatever move the United States took would lead to the loss of a major ally in either Vincent or Trujillo.

In the end, however, eager to "purify" his nation rather than keep a vulnerable (and military invaluable) ally, on September 1, 1938, President McSweeney ordered the overthrow of Vincent and the formation of a political union between the two countries into one "Republic of Hispaniola". The plan proved very successful – that evening, Yankee bombers stationed out of Ciudad Trujillo carpet bombed Port-au-Prince, destroying nearly all of the Republic of Haiti's government apparatus, throwing the country into chaos and allowing Dominican forces to cross the border and march into Haiti almost completely unopposed. Soon after, the United States began preparing huge convoys of "transfer ships" (essentially modern reincarnations of slave ships) to deport Jews and Mormons to Hispaniola.

However, the action was met by condemnation from Entente nations, and the matter was brought up at the Munich Conference after Nazi Germany began making demands for the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. A small delegation from both the United States and Hispaniola led by U.S Secretary of State Stimson and Hispanic President Trujillo eked out an agreement with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and Confederate Assistant Secretary of State George Herbert Walker (Confederate Secretary of State Clarence Potter boycotted the Conference as a result of the events in the Caribbean and Europe), in which the Entente nations formally agreed to recognize the Republic of Hispaniola and its jurisdiction over the Republic of Haiti in exchange for assurances that the white Hispanic government would moderate the segregationist policies against black Haitians. It was also agreed between Trujillo and Stimson to begin sending the transfer ships to the island.

Even so, the construction of the transfer ships was racked with huge delays and cost overruns, despite their bare construction and simplicity, which meant that they would be unable to start population transfers until the early 1940s at the earliest. As such, the McSweeney government began taking steps to prepare their ostracized minorities for deportation.

On September 17, 1938, he highest echelons of the McSweeney administration, including Kuhn, Effinger and MacArthur, privately met in West Chester, a town west of Philadelphia and just south of the Valley Forge encampment dating back to the Revolutionary War, to discuss the matter of rounding up the people in question to be sent out. In the minutes of the subsequent meeting, it was detailed that the deportations would begin taking place as early as the 1940s, but since there were so many Jews and Mormons still in the country, it was necessary for both groups to be rounded up. At this point, Kuhn and McSweeney brought up the concentration camps in Utah, and agreed that an entire network of them should be established to house them. Given that McSweeney appeared to approve of the idea wholeheartedly, nobody dared question such a solution. By the end of the West Chester Conference, it was formally agreed, among other things, that enlarged concentration camps would be built for the purpose of incarcerating all the Jews, Mormons and socialists in the United States of America, with the purpose of temporarily housing them before they would be shipped off to Hispaniola.

However, the commencement of the program was stymied by another huge event, one which helped to secure a major advantage for the United States of America against her Southern rival.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16: The Mexican Civil War**

To understand the events that helped restore confidence in the United States and eventually brought it to war, it is important to go back to the history of Mexico from the beginning of the 20th century.

Throughout the early 1900s, the Second Mexican Empire had an often fraught and violent history. However, the country's ability to hold its own against the United States and the Central Powers during the attempted American seizure of Baja California showed that the country would be able to be safe from hostile takeover and that it could remain strong and defiant against external threats. Under the leadership of Marshal, the Imperial Mexican forces were also recognized in Richmond by former President Wilson following the Entente's victory as one of the most important forces to the victory in North America, of similar, if not equal, importance, to the work of both the Confederate and Canadian forces.

In the interwar period, the Mexican Empire enjoyed the fruits of prosperity that had been held out of their grasp for decades prior. A Golden Age dawned upon the country, as Confederate companies, in close collaboration with local, smaller Mexican firms and the government, worked to create an unprecedented economic boom in the country, while the leadership saw greater liberalization and expression occur throughout the country. Greater artistic expression led to artists like Frieda Kahlo become very prominent during this time, and Kahlo's works remain a testament towards the rise of new and innovative cultural and artistic styles and genres, and are still of great value to art collectors today.

However, underneath, trouble was brewing. The spillover from the Russian Revolution and the failed uprisings in the United States had led to a small but growing revolutionary movement within the Empire. It mostly drew membership and inspiration from a mix of Marxist ideals, agrarianism and social democracy, with its founders and leaders including such figures as Emiliano Zapata, Venustiano Carranza and Adolfo de la Huerta. Although such movements were split early on, in particular during the pre-War years, the underground sects managed to begin consolidation under different factions upon ruthless suppression of smaller groups by the government. Soon three major factions came to dominate the Mexican underground – Emiliano Zapata's Army of the South, which was agrarian and socialist in ideology and supportive of its farmers and an overthrow of the monarchy and institution of radical socialist government, Venustiano Carranza's Liberals, who favored sweeping political reform and an end to the monarchy's firm grip on power, and Adolfo de la Huerta's Fundamentalists, who were stauch nationalists favoring an independent foreign policy from the Confederate States and developing a separate sphere of influence in Latin America, as well as greater authoritarianism in government. Carranza would die of a heart attack at his headquarters in San Luis Potosi, and would be succeeded by Francisco Lagos Cházaro.

The years following the Great Depression saw the popularity of the monarchy plummet. While the government enacted expansionary fiscal policy to counter its effects and try to get people into work, the fact that Emperor Francisco Jose II and the Royal Family lived in a luxurious palace with lavish fittings and was able to eat three sumptuous, filling meals a day and traversed the streets of Mexico City riding a British-built Rolls-Royce limousine dressed in opulent attire, while millions of unemployed workers starved in the streets without shelter, food, water, income and jobs, was enough to sway popular opinion against them.

Zapata and Cházaro seized upon the opportunity. At a meeting in a warehouse in the port of Acapulco on July 5, 1930, the two agreed to form a United Front, in lieu of the one the Chinese Kuomintang and Communists had formed during Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition in the late 1920s, to overthrow the Hapsburg monarchy and install a transitional republican form of government. The meeting and negotiations were not very amicable however. Tensions remained over the system to which the government would be run – Cházaro had wanted to maintain the monarchy but demote the Emperor to a figurehead, while Zapata wanted it done with completely and to install a dictatorship of the proletariat like Lenin had done following the Russian Revolution. The republic was a concession both made to make it work. Matters of foreign and economic policy also remained at the forefront of the issue, but were ultimately put aside to deal with the threat of the monarchy.

The plans came to fruition on November 20, 1933, when the Army of the South, in conjunction with Liberal militias and defecting soldiers and officers, stormed the Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City, military bases and other imperial institutions within the city's Federal District and across the country, arrested the Royal Family, and proclaimed the overthrow of the Second Mexican Empire and the creation of the People's Republic of Mexico. But in the chaos, Crown Prince Francisco Jose and a few of his closest aides managed to flee to the Confederate state of Sonora, where they were sheltered for some time in the town of Baroyeca by a farmer and Great War veteran named Hipolito Rodriguez and his family, before making it to Richmond on Christmas Day 1933, where they proclaimed an Imperial Mexican government-in-exile and the Crown Prince as Francisco Jose II, Mexican Emperor. Until the installation of the Fundamentalist regime and the end of the Civil War, the rest of the Royal Family was kept in a prison in the city of Veracruz, as a taunting gesture to the Confederate States, an "invitation" for them to seize the port and rescue them like the French and Spanish had done in 1861 during the French intervention in Mexico and installation of the Empire.

Zapata and Cházaro got to work preparing a new system of government. A constitution was drafted and signed on May 5, 1934, the anniversary of the Mexican defeat at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Imperial institutions were purged and replaced with an efficient but expansive bureaucracy. The Catholic Church was permitted to continue, but its messages were made under the watchful eye of the government, as anything indicating support for the Empire would be censored. The power of trade unions was expanded drastically, as were workers' rights – federal laws instituted populist reforms including a minimum wage, maximum work hours, and voting rights.

However, that all came to an end on July 5, 1934, when Cházaro was assassinated by an unidentified sniper outside the National Palace in Mexico City, and the Archbishop of Mexico was shot dead by another shooter that same day near the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral. An attempt was also made on Zapata's life, but was foiled by his quick reflexes leading to a near miss. Speculation on who fired the shots has been the subject of much debate and controversy to this day. Many historians believe that a group supporting the deposed Empire hoping to decapitate the government and make way for the return of Francisco Jose II carried out the plot, but other theories have continued to arise to date. Another popular one is that the attacks were part of a Zapatista conspiracy to allow him to seize full control of the government and push his will on the Mexican people, and that the attack on him was an intentional miss. Others have suspected the Fundamentalists. Still others implicate foreign powers, ranging from the Imperials' Confederate allies to the NPPA United States to Nazi Germany to even the British or Soviets.

Regardless of whoever it was, Zapata took the opportunity to bring the situation under control, and at the same time use these events to fulfill his goals. In a defiant speech from the city the following morning, Zapata announced the institution of martial law and a nationwide manhunt to hunt down the perpetrators of the plot and bring them to justice. What followed was a crackdown of massive proportions against the remaining Imperialists, whom the Mexican People's Republic suspected of being the ones responsible after the police receives tips tracing the suspects to an underground hideout in Guadalajara in a predominantly high-class neighborhood. What followed was the seizure of much of the former aristocracy's property, and many elites were put to death. Soon the attacks began spreading to the Catholic Church, an institution which had been highly supportive of the monarchy in the past. Under the auspices of General Plutarco Elías Calles, bishops were arrested and the practice of Catholicism was suppressed, and large congregations were banned without going through strict bureaucratic procedures. This was a huge mistake.

Although the Mexican people had turned against the Empire, many had not abandoned their faith. The Church had been a refuge for many homeless seeking shelter, and many others relied on its charity to guarantee them food and water. Additionally the strong presence of the Catholic faith in Mexico ensured that many millions of Mexicans would remain faithful to the Church even in times of crisis and seek help and faith from the institution. The suppression of Church activities sparked anger in many Mexicans, who saw Zapata's increasingly dictatorial rule as being no better than that of the Emperor before him, and the People's Republic began to fall apart at its seams.

The Fundamentalists, who had been ignored and forgotten for some time, took advantage of these events. Promising a restoration of religious rights and an end to the chaos of the crackdowns, their campaign began to gain traction among the Mexican people. Soon, the Fundamentalists had amassed millions of followers in their own right, and their militias had begun their own insurrection against the People's Republic. Zapata responded by escalating the crackdown and suppressing Fundamentalist lawmakers. But it was unable to stem the tide of popular support de la Huerta rode on. Nonetheless, de la Huerta was unable to throw them out just then, so he turned to foreign powers for support.

The first messages were sent to the Confederate States and France. De la Huerta had hoped to receive assistance from the Mexican Empire's traditional allies to throw out the Zapatistas through armed revolution and take back the country, and possibly restore the Emperor to power as well. But the strongly authoritarian tendencies of the Fundamentalists, as well as their desires for a strong Mexico as a regional power, were enough to turn both Richmond and Paris off. Additionally the Imperial government-in-exile in Richmond also disapproved of their heavy-handed governing style and their deeply xenophobic ideology, as well as their desire to force even the Church to bow to them, as under the Empire, the Church, while closely tied to the monarchy, was given free reign and plenty of liberty over its affairs, though the government still had the final say in any legal affairs.

Frustrated, and lacking any aid from South American countries like Colombia (which was undergoing a border dispute with Venezuela), Brazil (Emperor Dom Pedro III saw him as a threat to Brazilian regional power in South America), and Argentina (undergoing the tumultuous period of the Infamous Decade), de la Huerta, in a very desperate measure, finally turned to the United States of America for aid.

The reception in Philadelphia was decidedly mixed. On the one hand, the pluralists under Father Coughlin supported giving de la Huerta aid as a fellow Catholic brother, as did pragmatists like Stimson seeing the value of a Fundamentalist Mexico as an ally. On the other hand stood the ideologues led by Pelley, Kuhn and Ford. The divide became very clear to McSweeney after a Cabinet meeting was clearly split between both lines. Coming to terms with the positives of both suggestions, he finally decided to make an acceptable compromise. De la Huerta and the Fundamentalists would receive millions of dollars worth of aid and hardware in addition to money, but in return the Catholic Church would have to fall under the auspices of NPPA "liaisons" while Protestant texts and tracts, mostly Presbyterian in nature, were disseminated across the country, in a bid to convert the population from what the dictator called "decadent Papist heresy".

Under other conditions, de la Huerta would likely have refused. It was known that in meetings among his inner circle, the group was very bitterly divided among similar lines to those of the McSweeney cabinet. De la Huerta himself was very hostile to the idea of having Protestant texts disseminated in a country when he was a very staunchly orthodox Catholic who still supported his Church. But the Fundamentalists, still lacking conclusive military support and aid, finally folded to the pro-US support faction, and de la Huerta reluctantly signed the agreement with a jubilant President McSweeney on November 3, 1936.

The next few years were marked by a time of tension as Fundamentalist militias armed with American weapons, including some of the Dickens rifles, began clashing with state police forces across the country, while also gaining the support of many elements of the military, a right-wing, pro-traditionalist faction, including that of . Things finally came to a head on April 4, 1938, when a military putsch spread out across the country, particularly in the rural, conservative regions, exploded into the open. The Mexican Civil War had begun.

The scales initially tipped in favor of the Zapatista government – Zapata's time as a leader of military revolt against the Mexican Empire had taught him much about the quirks of military tactics and strategy, and many elements of the Army were still on his side. However, what he failed to anticipate was just how much support the Fundamentalists had from Philadelphia, as well as how little his government, which Richmond and Paris had denounced as much as they denounced the Fundamentalists and their reign of terror, as well as the fact that the Air Force, dominated by a generation of right-wing officers who had been largely grounded for ideological and political reasons, had returned to the skies on de la Huerta's side, and with the support of new US aircraft like the Wright-27. Moreover, the entire Republic revolved around Zapata's leadership -without him, they would lose their main leader and tactical genius. So when Zapata died suddenly of old age on This meant that Zapata was hemmed in, and was under threat.

However, the Fundamentalists were not out of the blue either. They faced a lot of anger for their supposed kowtowing to the United States and their demands of Catholic suppression, and many wings of their party revolted, with over 40% of the Party departing by the beginning of 1938. These secessionists, along with the remnants of the Liberals that had survived Zapata's purged, began to make contact with Francisco Jose II in Richmond, and asked to lead a new insurrection to fight the Fundamentalists and Zapatistas and re-establish the Imperial regime. While wary, the Emperor-in-exile saw the value of their support, and in a strong, stirring speech to delegates of the exiled Imperial regime on March 5, 1937, requested that they be integrated into a new fighting force to take back Mexico for the Empire, which was received with overwhelming applause and a standing ovation, the delegates overwhelmed with how far he was willing to go to restore the country and its honor, even if it meant a losing struggle. These soldiers were regrouped into a fighting force nicknamed the "Jaguars" for their ferocity and dedication, in honor of the Aztec warriors who inhabited Mexico over 400 years ago, and received weapons and training from CS, British and French military officers, and entered the conflict with a massive amphibious landing at the port of Veracruz on November 23, 1937, freeing the Royal Family in the process.

With the seizure of the port and the confused, four-day battle that followed, the Civil War became a three-way affair. And with that came the arrival of many volunteers. The support for the three groups eventually devolved around these lines – the Zapatistas were backed by the USSR and fringe socialists and communists in the CS and Latin America, the Fundamentalists were supported by the United States and, to a lesser extent, Nazi Germany and the Alaskan Empire, and the Imperials received the support of the Entente, their traditional allies. The conflict ultimately boiled down to several factors, but became a stalemate for many years to come.

Many parallels have been drawn between the turmoil of Mexico and the Spanish Civil War over how they foreshadowed the eventual conflict that would sweep the world in the 1940s, but they really can't compare. The volunteers they received, as well as how the Mexican conflict was clearly three-sided, is a testament to this. For one, Confederate States volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, the famous Lee, Jackson and Longstreet Brigades, were primarily comprised of pro-republicans rallying behind the cause of freedom, liberty and the rights of man against a tyrannical dictator backed by their enemies who sought to crush such causes, not to mention the fact that the Second Spanish Republic, the government they supported, was indeed a republic with a (mostly) democratic government in power at the time of the war's beginning. In Mexico, meanwhile, most of the Confederate volunteers, led by Jefferson Davis Pinkard, the Alabama steelworker turned conscript and war hero, stood by the Imperials and the Jaguars, and were rallying behind similar causes – unlike their counterparts in Iberia, they saw the Imperials as the bearers of freedom, because they disliked the Zapatistas for the terror they had inflicted on many people, and the Fundamentalists for their backing by the United States, and Francisco Jose II had also promised reforms and a new government that would answer more to the people's demands upon his return to Mexico City – indeed, he and many of his closest advisors spent over half of the Civil War batting heads over how to accomplish this.

Nonetheless, the war had a massive effect on the United States' war machine and their military morale. Thousands of enthusiastic volunteers eagerly went to Mexico in support of their Fundamentalist "Christian brothers-in-arms". Dickens rifles began mass-production in very well hidden complexes across the country. The Air Force, in lieu of the Condor Legion the German Luftwaffe had formed in Spain, created the Phoenix Legion, under the command of Air Force Major General Terry DeFrancis, and with a massive fleet of Boeing-36 bombers under its wing. Like its German counterpart, the group undertook terror-bombing raids against mostly Zapatista targets and cities. However, to pay for the resources needed, McSweeney ultimately conceded to putting the construction and deployment of the transfer ships on hold, considering how many resources were needed to fuel the procurement of new weapons for the Fundamentalists and American volunteers in addition to its military buildup in preparation for the great showdown around the bend, although the concentration camp system was to be maintained.

This was a clear sign to the Department of War that the country would be building up for war, and doing so at haste. Soon it would be a matter of time before the country fell to the Fundamentalists, and they would be one step away from finally achieving their final destiny. Or so they thought. But, as in the Great War, victory constantly eluded the Fundamentalists.

It is, of course, important to end on a final note that the Mexican Civil War did continue into and past the Second Great War, and when the civil war finally did come to its bloody conclusion, its results shocked all and brought about a change in dynamic to Latin America.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17: Patriot Economics**

We have now delved into how President Gordon McSweeney managed to consolidate his and his party's power to turn the United States of America, a republic built on the ideals of liberty, democracy and freedom, into a totalitarian, racist and bigoted dictatorship obsessed with exacting disproportionate retribution on its enemies, as well as some of the many oppressive policies that were enacted to concentrate the political power of the country within the Patriotic Party, and lead the country back into conflict. Now, before examining the final events that ultimately led to the Second Great War, we will look further in-depth into other domestic policies and how they influenced a generation of US Americans to become dedicated, unquestionably loyalists to the Butcher's regime and his ideology. We have already examined McSweeney's foreign policy as well as treatment of ethnic and religious minorities, and the instruments of Patriot control. The next segment will cover economic policy, the treatments of workers and women, policies on education and the youth, and the new culture of propaganda and the cult of personality that arose around the Butcher.

Economics was a particularly interesting aspect of the McSweeney regime. It is known that the Butcher, for all his authoritarian tendencies, supported laissez-faire capitalism, and upheld the free market as a gift from God to the people of the world. However, upon taking office, McSweeney and his Cabinet used the Patriots' political leverage and influence to engage the federal government in the economy as well, justifying their actions as the government taking part in the free market and capitalism, which was ultimately used to further crush dissent. The McSweeney government took to consolidating many of the United States' industries under its umbrella, not by nationalization, but through corporate mergers and buyouts through corporations and companies under their influence. The most well-known example is the complete consolidation of the auto industry under the Ford Motor Company, itself essentially one of the US government's corporate fronts, after its buyout of arch-rival General Motors, as mentioned earlier – more than a means of giving Secretary of Commerce and Labor Ford greater leverage in the business world as well as government, it also meant that the US would have a large pool of new resources to put to work in the creation of new factories and expand their propaganda front. The acquisition of GM's labor force and factories also meant the US military would be able to re-arm at a quicker pace, as more factories meant more guns, tanks, planes and ammunition could be pumped out. Also important was the centralization of the banking system after American economists traced the US economy's collapse in the Great Depression to the failure of the traditional system of small, family-owned banks, leading to the consolidation of many such banks into larger cooperative banks that answered directly to the US Central Bank, ostensibly for rooting out "Jewish conspirators" scapegoated for the Great Depression, as well as the US government purchasing stakes in up-and-coming American airlines like Pan American World Airways and Union Airlines, and using their leverage to create a training scheme for young, eager pilots who would one day fly for the Air Force.

Additionally, public-private partnerships were expanded as part of a new series of expansionary fiscal and supply-side policies to stimulate the US economy again, a turn away from government non-intervention in the economic affairs of the state. Large infrastructure projects such as skyscrapers and buildings rose up, and modern interstate highways and railways began spanning the country. Cities most heavily affected by the scourge of the conflicts of years' past like Boston, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Phoenix experienced great revitalizations as wide-scale redevelopment schemes saw new developments within their urban areas, as new towers reached to the skies, and unemployment and homelessness began dropping like a rock – whereas the unemployment rate in St. Louis had been a staggering 27% in 1933, following McSweeney's re-election that rate had fallen like a rock to just 5%./span/p

Nonetheless, with these developments came worries about the wealth gap and union power, which, as Ford privately noted to McSweeney, had the possibility of stirring up resentment and resistance against the federal government. In response, McSweeney drafted a series of laws that effectively massively curtailed union power and forced many to go bust or underground – most notably, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union, previously a large front for the Socialist Party and one of the largest unions in the country, was limited in its scope of operations to just the Great Lakes and California following its suppression, and only managed to avoid complete fragmentation due to the unifying leadership capabilities exhibited by its leader, longtime union organizer and activist William "Big Bill" Haywood. The few that survived did so because their leaders had been influential Patriotic Party members or supporters, and they were soon consolidated into one union, the Workers' Patriotic Front of America (WPFA), with Wisconsin far-right organizer and NPPA member Gerald L.K. Smith as its head. It functioned very similarly to the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, or DAF) in Nazi Germany, ostensibly acting as a large union and front for giving workers benefits including high wages, employment security, reasonable working hours, social security, leisure activities, family and sick leave, and provisions like food, water and breaks, though employers still had much of the final word with how these benefits would be distributed. However, while membership was theoretically voluntary, like unions of the past, many workers were pressured to join because these benefits were only extended to WPFA members and nobody else. And these benefits all came at the cost of absolute loyalty to the cause of the Patriots and their agenda of Manifest Destiny.

Taking cues from the DAF and Robert Ley, Ford and Smith also set up sub-organizations. The Patriotic Leisure Group (PLG) acted as the front of the WPFA's leisure activities by making middle-class leisure activities like holidays and vacations available to industrial workers, and in addition to creating travel packages for workers and their families at different times, also subsidized sporting and leisure facilities to give workers access, and allocated funds to the construction and operation of new hotels, resorts and cruise ships, in a capacity similar to that of the German Strength Through Joy (KDF) program. The United Labor Service (ULS) was an employment organization established for the purpose of providing unskilled workers jobs, whether in factories or on the infrastructure projects in the country. The Workers' Welfare Project (WWP) provided workplaces with better amenities and conditions, such as minimized noise, lower pollution and safer working areas to those performing manual labor. These programs, partly inspired by the successes of the DAF but also by Ford's practice of increasing the wages of the Ford Motor Company's workers to motivate them to work harder and better, proved successful, and many thousands of American lower-class workers experienced a new life of wealth and luxury that just five years ago had seemed completely out of reach for them, but also led to the indoctrination of even more Americans into the Patriotic agenda.

Still, unlike Germany, the market still operated on a relatively free, liberal basis, and the economic policy of the Patriots has generally been described by historians as being "while more heavy-handed and controlling than in the past, still operated on the tenets of capitalism and the free market."


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18: A Period of Consequences**

"The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences."  
\- Winston Churchill, "Debate on the Address"

 _Excerpt from "Empire in the 20th Century" by James Brown, 2011_

Like all participants in the First Great War, the British Empire did not have as good a war as it hoped. On the American Front, its forces were spread thin by the astronomically long lines by which the United States' offensives into Canada were taking. With major cities like Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal under the US Army's guns, it was a combination of the US' own struggles with fighting a two-front war as well as the tenacity of Imperial soldiers and commanders alike that prevented the Canadian lines from fully breaking and leading to the Dominion falling under the Stars and Stripes. Similarly, the Western European Front remained bogged down in France and Belgium, and despite troops from other Dominions performing well against the odds, it still wasn't enough to break the Germans. The advent of the tank, however, did help matters, and on the advice of General Julian Byng, the commander of British ground troops in North America, tanks were massed and widely used to break the American and German lines, in the same vein that the Confederate States used in the Longsword Offensive [1]. All these contributed greatly to the war ending on both fronts by 1918, and gave the Entente the victory they had long sought.

All was not well at home, however. American and German support of the Irish Republican movements had forced the British Army to divert troops to the Emerald Isle to quell disturbances, and things came to a head in 1916 with the Easter Rising. The Rising, which lasted but less than a week before it was quelled and order restored to Ireland, saw the marginalisation of the republican separatist factions, especially after the British response was marked with relative restraint and few arrests [2]. In particular, the uncovering of American weapons and provisions among the Rising's arsenal dealt a serious blow to any lingering sympathies for nationalism, as it only served to support the idea that the Rising was conducted by traitors who had forgone their integrity to be on the payroll of their wartime enemies. It was a serious wake-up call to many in the government, however, that Irish Home Rule was a prospect that could no longer be delayed [3].

Amidst the outcry of Ulster Unionists, the Prime Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith, was able to appease the pro-Home Rule Irish parties through his War Secretary David Lloyd-George, who worked closely with John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, to oversee the resumption of Home Rule's implementation, along with provisions to additionally devolve Parliamentary power through the creation of new Home Rule assemblies in England, Scotland and Wales, and reform the British Parliament into an Imperial assembly that contained representatives of each constituent country, Dominion and colony in the Empire. Asquith also managed to secure Lloyd-George's resumed loyalty by allowing him to form and chair a Cabinet War Conduct Committee, which devolved the civilian government's oversight of the war to him and other committee members, including future Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The continuation of Lloyd-George's position in the Asquith ministry saved it and the Liberal Party from further splits, and although both men's relationship would remain tense, it nonetheless opened up room for a reconciliation between them.

These critical decisions, therefore, are considered the main factors that allowed the United Kingdom to survive the war in the relatively politically stable state it did at the time the peace was secured at Trenton and Versailles. Despite the unease surrounding the 1918 general election being held so soon after the war ended, it nonetheless allowed the establishment to hold - in particular, the Irish Parliamentary Party maintained its standing in Parliament despite fears that revolutionary organisations like Sinn Fein would gain significantly from the post-Rising chaos; in fact, while Sinn Fein did gain several seats, it failed to dislodge the Irish establishment, which allowed Home Rule to continue being implemented generally unimpeded...

 _Taken from "Churchill: A Life" by Martin Gilbert, 1992_

Stressed by the war, Churchill decided to take his leave on an extended vacation. After resigning his seat in Parliament and Cabinet positions, and considering his options, he decided to head back to India. He had something of a nostalgia for the Empire's crown jewel, seeing as he had served there for some time in the Army, and largely developed his secondary education there by himself. Rather than taking the normal route through the Suez Canal, however, he instead went via South Africa, stopping there for a week before continuing on. While en route, he routinely remained to himself in the ship's library, engaging in reading like he often did. However, upon re-embarkation to his final destination in Bombay, he had a very chance and fateful encounter with a young lawyer and rising star in the Indian independence movement. His name was Mohandas Gandhi.

Churchill up until this point had had little respect for non-white colonial subjects of the Empire. Despite the beliefs of his late father, the Lord Randolph Churchill, in imperial unity, the younger Churchill saw little in the ideas that Africa or India could be considered equally valuable to the Empire's preservation. However, the encounter with Gandhi in the library of the ship they shared served to greatly shape his views over the succeeding period up to his rise to power as Prime Minister. Both men's relationship started acrimoniously, as they belittled each other over their political differences. However, it gradually developed over the course of the two-week journey into something of an odd friendship that influenced both men towards a similar conjecture over the Empire's structure - as they parted upon arrival in Bombay, Gandhi would start holding the view that the Congress Party would ideally work with the Empire to achieve Indian independence in the long term, while Churchill saw the natives of India and other colonies in a more positive light than before, appreciating their status as Imperial subjects and considering their role in a more inclusive Empire that united races and nations behind the Union Jack [4].

Around this time, the ideas of Imperial Federation began to take even greater hold, particularly in Canada, as the idea that Dominions and colonies needed to rely as much on London and each other to survive as they did themselves took great hold amongst people who saw Imperial unity as the best means of ensuring continued strength. Indeed, the idea also took a strong hold in the Raj as well, with Indian Muslim leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah, head of the All India Home Rule League, began to gain even more popularity among both Europeans and natives for these ideas. At first, this brought him into conflict with more radical pro-independence activists for taking a more moderate stance. However, consultation with Gandhi on the unification of the independence movements led Churchill into the debate as well.

Churchill's views on imperial devolution have been somewhat interesting. While still unequivocally a lover and firm believer in the Empire and its ideals, he also shared the ideas purported by politicians like Joseph Chamberlain, himself a supporter of federationism as an alternative to only Ireland receiving Home Rule. In fact, as late as the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries he had found agreement with the Liberal agenda as far as all issues except Ireland, only remaining in the Conservative Party because of that issue. While he had later swayed away from this view, the war, and in particular his impressions of the success of colonial and Dominion troops, not only revived this view but also evolved it and cemented in him the idea that it was the only way the Empire could survive, especially with lingering and new threats, particularly the Soviet Union and a United States and Germany still resentful over the peace.

By this point, it was 1920, and Churchill had spent nearly three months in the country and maintained a close correspondence with Gandhi. As a senior, somewhat well-known bureaucrat, the development of his more sympathetic views towards the ideals of Indian self-government made him an intangible asset to the legitimacy of the Home Rule League, and given the success Home Rule had seen in Ireland, Churchill was more than ready to accept the ideals of Federation, including a more autonomous India that had stronger control over its own government. Hence Churchill, Gandhi and Jinnah began to be seen as the main inspiration behind Indian self-government, and after the Congress split over the issue between Gandhi's Home Rule faction and Jawaharlal Nehru's pro-independence clique, it greatly bolstered the ranks of the Home Rule movement, which also gained the support of prominent figures like King George V's aide-de-camp the Maharaja Ganga Singh of Bikaner, the Punjabi Unionist Party leader Sikander Hayat Khan, and the First Great War fighter ace Indra Lal Roy [5]. All these would lead to the beginnings of India's turn towards self-government over the 1920s, and also laid the ground for Churchill's political comeback and his initial drafts for the reconstitution of the British Empire along the ideals of Imperial Federation combined with his father's beliefs in Tory Democracy and Unionism.

[1] Byng in OTL was the main brainchild of the Battle of Cambrai, the first massed deployment of tanks in the First World War, although armoured warfare theorist J.F.C Fuller also played a role.

[2] This is a serious departure from OTL; the British responded much more harshly in OTL, which actually accelerated demands for Irish independence and subverted confidence in Home Rule.

[3] Like in OTL, the Government of Ireland Act 1914, also known as the Third Home Rule Bill, has its implementation delayed by the First World War's outbreak. However, its contents, which I will not go into detail of, differ slightly as they open up the possibility for the other kingdoms to get their own assemblies, which materialises in the subsequent and final bill.

[4] It should be noted that in OTL Churchill still held a certain respect for India, as he criticised the Amritsar Massacre, lauded the Indian troops that fought in WWII, and also gave grudging compliments to Gandhi for his support of the untouchable castes. Here, however, it's even more positive.

[5] Roy was India's first and only fighter ace in WWI, and still is in this timeline. However, he is not shot down and returns home a hero, using his status to campaign for Home Rule and the transition of the Raj to a Dominion.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19: As Conquer We Shall**

 _Excerpt from "A Short, Concise History of the Labour Party" by Lincoln Cheng, 2014_

As North America was in upheaval, so was the United Kingdom. Elections in 1922 saw the political system shaken up as the Labour Party under J.R. Clynes rose to Official Opposition status, and despite it losing that status to the Liberals once again in the following election in 1924 despite the ascension Ramsay MacDonald to the leadership, it nonetheless cemented its status as a firmly left-wing alternative party that could represent an increasingly socialist-leaning electorate.

MacDonald sought to consolidate those gains, which had mostly been concentrated in working class regions like the Midlands, and also began making the Party a more centrist force in order to have more electoral appeal. However, the largest obstacle in his way was the Liberal Party, which had rode on a wave of mass popular support as a result of Home Rule devolution in Wales and Scotland to secure itself there. Labour, which had focused its campaigns in these regions, saw this strategy fall apart as the Liberals gave a strong showing there except in several Glasgow and Edinburgh constituencies, combined with a strong last-minute swing towards the Conservatives after the Baldwin government enacted some progressive legislation amidst fears of a general strike. Labour would ultimately win just 112 seats compared to the 167 it had won in 1922. The subsequent fallout almost forced MacDonald to resign, but although he held power it would be a major inciting factor that led to the Party's move away from its Scottish roots.

Still, the point had been more or less clear that Labour would be a fixture in the United Kingdom and its political sphere for the near future, and that it could still have strong appeal from working-class types. Indeed, the point was proven by the 1930 election, when the economic fallout of Black Monday and the collapse of the Conservatives led Labour to gain the most seats at that time, leading to the creation of the first ever National Government to deal with the crisis…

 _Excerpt from "Churchill: A Life" by Martin Gilbert, 1992_

No sooner had he returned home had Churchill worked to return to power. Returning to a greatly changed political atmosphere, he came just before the writ was dropped and the 1924 election was called. Churchill saw it appropriate to refer to him in order to rejoin Parliament, which he so sorely missed after nearly four years in India. At first, Churchill found himself stuck between whether to rejoin the Liberals, or to defect to the Conservative Party once again, assuming that it would grant him a better electoral performance given the Liberals' marginalisation of the immediate post-war years. However, with David Lloyd George assuming the mantle of Liberal leadership after Asquith's retirement in April of that year, the decision was made. After registering as the candidate for the historical constituency of Westminster, he garnered the support of the increasingly Unionist-aligned Liberal political machinery, and was elected by a small but clear majority over the Conservative candidate, Otho William Nicholson [1]. Along with the overall electoral results - a small gain for the Liberals that saw them narrowly regain various seats previously lost to Labour and maintain their standing in the Scottish and Welsh Assemblies - the news was most welcome to Lloyd George, who proceeded to offer his old friend the position of Shadow Secretary of State for the Colonies [2].

Churchill eagerly took the position, but he wanted more from there. His Indian vacation had greatly shifted his worldview, and he wanted to make this clear in the politics he sought to represent. When Parliament reconvened, Churchill took the floor by storm as he gave blistering speeches over the need for Imperial unity and criticised the lack of a united solution towards the question of India and the preservation of the Empire. More importantly, and to the shock of Parliament, he also laid out his worries about the Empire's disunity being exploited by any potential enemies in the near future, and warned of a new war that would break out within the next ten to twenty years, adding that regardless of whichever enemy it was, it required the creation of a more equitable British Empire that built itself up as one unit rather than a London-dominated amalgamation of different cultures, ethnicities and religions.

The reception across political circles usually tended to be of scorn - even a number of left-wing leaders had scoffed at what Churchill had proffered. Many saw him as being touched in the head, and in political circles he had few allies - even the Liberal party machinery took care to distance themselves from his rhetoric. However, where government had failed to support him, Churchill found it elsewhere. The Lord Beaverbrook, himself a product of the Empire's cosmopolitan nature by being of Canadian birth, made positive references to Churchill's speeches in his publications, while Churchill's lifelong friend, the Canadian Liberal Party leader William Lyon Mackenzie King, affirmed these views on the other side of the Atlantic, professing his strong belief that "without the Empire, there will be no Canada to speak of [3]." Even people whom Churchill would otherwise have vociferously opposed, such as the prominent feminist and theosophist Annie Besant, found common ground on the proposal, though for different reasons.

The situation remained largely the same through the 1920s, but several events served to turn public opinion the other way. In 1927, Gandhi made a highly publicised visit to the United Kingdom. Having met with the Viceroy and developed a joint manifesto for goals to Indian self-government, and drummed up support at home and abroad, he sought to expand his movement's support base to the heart of the Empire. For that, he arranged a variety of engagements across the country. Coming at around the same time as the Orientalist wave among British intellectuals, he proved to be highly, if not unexpectedly popular among the country's left wing. Churchill himself would appear at a number of these engagements to support his friend, and both men would indicate that they saw in each other the futures of the Empire. This played well to many people across the Empire - in Churchill they saw a pragmatic yet reformed and forward-thinking civil servant who had set aside prejudice in favour of tolerance in the name of unity and equity, and in Gandhi they saw a committed but compromising leader who had given his people a voice they had not heard before. Though they had detractors, both men used the generally positive publicity and reception to enhance their messages, though Churchill's oratory also proved remarkably persuasive in this regard.

Following that was the electoral shock of 1930. The Conservatives had won re-election in 1929 to continue their hold on power, but the onset of the Great Depression later in the same year saw Britain's economy enter turmoil as in much of the rest of the world. The Liberals strongly capitalised on this, attacking the government of Baldwin as weak and ineffectual, and to that end, proposed a radical new economic policy. The Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, the young firebrand Oswald Mosley [4], had been a proponent of increased public works and fiscal spending by the government to deal with the economic stagnation of the period, and along with his friend, the economist John Maynard Keynes, was able to convince Lloyd George of the merits of expansionary spending at a time when the public was becoming increasingly disillusioned with a government seemingly apathetic to creating jobs and supporting industry in the name of free enterprise.

Churchill, ever a proponent of monetarism, took strong issue with this, sparring with Mosley and at several points threatening to cross the floor back to the Conservatives. Ultimately, though, as Keynes' previous predictions of an economic collapse at the turn of the decade materialised with the Mexican debt crisis, Black Monday, and the onset of the Great Depression, Churchill finally relented and agreed to see the plan through its implementation, though not without his own dire predictions of its failure [5]. As such, he and the rest of the party prepared themselves for the upcoming election with Keynesian economics as part of the platform.

The results told themselves - as the last polls concluded on September 16, 1930, the Liberals had won a minority in Parliament. The results proved pleasing to Lloyd George and Ramsay MacDonald, whose parties had seen major gains, and devastated Baldwin and the Conservatives, whose once-solid majority had utterly collapsed. Nonetheless, given the gravity of the crisis, all three parties agreed to form a National Government, cementing their economic policies around Mosley's plan, with both parties threatening to end the coalition if the implementation failed to achieve the desired results.

In the meantime, however, Churchill was made Colonial Secretary of the new government, and continued his advocacy of Imperial Federation and Indian devolution as strongly as he could. In this regard, with the powers that his new position entailed, he used his influence to pressure the government to pursue his plan. Although he remained sidelined at first, eventually Lloyd George saw fit, with the backing of numerous MPs from all three parties, to bring the issue of Federation and Indian self-government to task.

Churchill wasted no time bringing forwards the draft for a new bill. Grandiosely titled the "Government of the British Empire and Federation Act 1931", the bill, put simply, called for the abolition of the British Raj and the establishment of a successor Dominion of India by 1936 (which was later extended to 1938 after the Act's second reading in the House of Lords), and a conference to be held in the same year among representatives of all the Empire's realms to negotiate the formation of an Imperial Parliament that would comprise the entire Empire. It also clarified the role of the Dominions and their government, and guaranteed the Indian stately princes their own sovereignty and rights as integral members of the Indian polity. Although Churchill had his own designs and ideas in drafting the act, he nonetheless wanted the venture to be a united effort that gave a sense of broad agreement, and to that end called upon the assistance and feedback of not just the other parties, but also representatives from the other realms. The end result had its first reading on September 5, 1931, and on October 12, Churchill took to the floor at its second reading to give what he would call the most important speech in his career.

"More than ten years ago, I first met my good friend Mr. Gandhi at a time of great personal self-reflection and improvement for both of us. At the time, I found the very idea and nature of Federation and the acceptance of him and so many others as equals to be anathea to the existence of our Empire in the first place. Put simply, we did not get along at first, for we were young stubborn men, holding on to deeply opposing ideas that we saw as irreconcilable with each other. Yet instead of doubling down on our entrenched beliefs, we backed from that threshold, and engaged ourselves in an atmosphere of discussion, negotiation, and acceptance. For that, I must strongly thank Mr. Gandhi and the many others, from the Isles and beyond, who have made me understand the ways we must change ourselves and our condition. They are all decent men of the highest order, no less dedicated to having their voices heard than all the Honourable Members and their respective constituents gathered here today, and it is their words who form the basis of the Act before you today.

When we emerged victorious in the limelight of the Great War, our victory came at the price of far too many good men and women, and at the cost of faith in our system. Now, with the great possibility that our foes will rise again, this time under the demagogic fire-breathers Misters Hitler and McSweeney, it is time to change that for the better. As a man of part-American birth who holds no pride in that identity, I have seen how that country tore itself apart following a period of resurgence. Socialist rebellion, economic ruin, and now a tyrant on the make preparing to consolidate himself in the halls of power. Such is the same with Germany and Russia. These nations were governed by repressive revanchists who had little regard for the welfare and voice of their peoples, and look where they are now! They are on the verge of embracing despots who seek to entrench and expand that oppression to all shores!

On the other hand, our close friends in Richmond have made moves to expand, not disband, their franchise. There, the Negro has had the vote for nearly twenty years. Where does the Confederate States stand now? Stable, orderly, and the great power of the American continent. The social and economic uplifting of the Negro has given the Confederacy a new fresh breath, strengthening its stability and economy, and yet made it more democratic and representative of its whole people.

That is why this Act must be passed. No longer shall we the British people be dominated by a wholly undemocratic hierarchy that serves to benefit just some of us. From this day forth, whence I would once have made a distinction between an Englishman, or an Indian, or an African, that is no more. For while these regional identities most certainly still exist, it is from here that we shall, above all else, be British. If the British Empire were to last a thousand years, men would still call this the most monumental reform made to it, equal to the Home Rule Bill, the Acts of Union, even the Magna Carta. For this will go down in history books as the Act that saved our people, and made our British Empire truly British."

From here, the Act was certain to pass. The multipartisan support lent by all three major parties and other groups had narrowly guaranteed an agreement satisfactory to most, and even allowed it to smoothly pass through the House of Lords thanks to its Leader, the Marquess of Reading. After two months of further readings in both Houses of Parliament, the Government of the British Empire Act received the royal assent of King George V on December 11, 1931, becoming official law. While mixed reactions held, in many circles there was a sense of eager anticipation and optimism of the Empire's future. The news, however, was best received in India. Even though the country was still to remain under the Raj until 1938, jubilant celebrations organised by the Congress and the Home Rulers sprang up in many of the Subcontinent's major cities.

The following day, however, the euphoria in the Liberal circles was cut short by shocking news. David Lloyd George had suffered a serious heart attack and was in critical condition…

[1] Churchill ran in this by-election as a Constitutionalist in OTL but lost as the Liberal media refused to support him; this would be a factor that later led him to rejoin the Conservatives.

[2] Churchill was the Colonial Secretary between 1921 and 1922, and with this position helped create the modern-day Iraqi and Jordanian states. He commonly boasted later that he drew out Jordan's borders "with the stroke of a pen, one Sunday afternoon" at the Cairo Conference, which evolved into something of a joke about him being drunk at the time given how arbitrarily drawn it seemed to be.

[3] Remember that this sort of view is much more mainstream in Canada ITTL because of the Dominion's reliance on the Isles for support.

[4] I based much of Mosley's portrayal on EdT's "A Greater Britain". Mosley at this point was a young radical MP well known for his fiery oratory. ITTL he crossed the floor to the Liberals, not Labour, partly because his views are rather more moderate and partly because Labour is worse off.

[5] Churchill still strongly rejected Keynes in OTL after the War, but here is rather more compromising due to his less hardline right-wing views and Gandhi's influence.


	20. Chapter 20

_Excerpt from "Churchill: A Life" by Martin Gilbert, 1992_

Miraculously, the heart attack, while nearly fatal, did not kill David Lloyd George. Instead, the Liberal leviathan had survived to live another day, and the day after waking up from unconsciousness, threw himself back into work, sending missives out to the leadership assuring his well-being and the stability of the Party. Churchill would later recall a hospital visit the day after he awoke in which Lloyd George's response to his protege's concerns were assertive snorts and scoffs; as he recalled, "The incident hardly bothered him - rather, he showed almost no signs of ill. The doctors called it a good sign of recovery, considering the severity of his bout."

Yet few were under the illusion that Lloyd George could continue governing much longer. The episode was a drastic, almost tragic reminder that the Party needed a new leader with a fresh face to replace the aged Father of the House. Lloyd George himself, confident in the success of the Federation Act and the economic program, was willing to take the extra step and resign on his own accord while calling a general election to ensure his successor's legitimacy as a leader, though he held out on appointing his successor, since he vacillated between Churchill and Mosley, undecided on which would provide better leadership for the country as of yet. Still, the point was made; when Parliament reconvened following the winter holidays on February 2, 1932, Lloyd George indicated that he would resign as Prime Minister and Party leader and that he would appoint his successor in mid-March following discussion within the Party [1].

Quickly, the party wings coalesced around supporting either Oswald Mosley and Winston Churchill. At first glance, it would have seemed that both had little distinguishing platforms from each other - both broadly supported the continued devolution and federalisation of the British Empire and integration of its realms into a centralised federal government, both were supportive of the Keynesian economic program (though to different degrees), and both were extremely talented orators who could easily captivate audiences with their words and voice.

However, it soon became clear that following the inauguration of Gordon McSweeney to the United States presidency, the consolidation of Adolf Hitler's power into the Führer position, and the beginning of the Stalinist purges, a new issue had come to play in the campaign over the defense and remilitarisation of the British Empire in preparation of these threats, on top of modernising it to cope with the widespread adaptation of technologies and tactics that appeared as early as the First Great War. This was primarily where Mosley and Churchill diverged. Churchill, ever an advocate of the democratic rule of law and wary of the dangerous and unpredictable nature of the regimes in power, spoke of the need to begin a gradual rearmament of Britain, with a dire prediction of a new conflict emerging in Europe and North America between the major powers that echoed French Marshal Ferdinand Foch's prophecy that the Treaties of Versailles and Trenton were but "a ceasefire of 20 years [2]." Mosley, on the other hand, was a strong Germanophile and came out firmly on the sizeable dovish camp of the party, which also included Lloyd George [3]. Both sought to placate Germany with the revocation of some of the Treaty's harsher articles while also granting them favourable trade deals to bolster their economy.

It did not take long for Churchill and Mosley to go on the attack against each other. Churchill accused Mosley of being a soft, weak-minded leader, pliable to foreign influences that would cause the Empire's decline into a lesser position, and eventually irrelevance. Mosley fired back by calling Churchill a "dinosaur," claiming he lived in an archaic worldview that prided Imperial glory far over the more integrated and international system of global governance of the post-First Great War era. He also went further by dredging up old memories of Churchill's involvement in the planning and execution of the Gallipoli Landings during his tenure as First Lord of the Admiralty in the First Great War, lambasting him in his fiery oratory by empathetically asking a rhetorical question, "250,000 men of the Empire gave their lives for one single failed landing thanks to this man. How many more must fall if the rabid Imperial bulldog gets into power? And who? Is it you? Your children? Your children's children?"

Churchill held on despite these attacks. Prominent endorsements for him from senior Party allies like Lord Beaverbrook proved a more than effective counterweight, and polling in plenty of Liberal constituencies indicated confidence in Churchill's leadership. He also received support from the supporters of Indian Home Rule, with whom he was associated more than anyone else in the government for its success. Yet for every card Churchill had, Mosley seemed to have two. For one, Mosley, for his part as Chancellor and the brains behind the successful economic recovery program, had much of the support of working class voters, who were even more powerful than before thanks to 20 years of fighting off and even pushing back Labour gains in that circle. Mosley further exploited this by promising welfare reform, which appealed not only to the working classes but to much of the Liberals' left wing and even Lloyd George himself, who had played an important role in laying the foundations for the British welfare state during the Liberal governments of the 1900s and 1910s [4]. Mosley contrasted his sympathy for the workers with his opponent by handily pointing out Churchill's continued commitment to monetarism and his unpopular but well-known desire to restore Britain to the Gold Standard during the 1920s Shadow Cabinet, which made him appear far too much of a dedicated ideologue to make rational, pragmatic decisions. This was enough for Labour, whose leadership, on February 20, 1932, declared that they would withdraw from any coalition with the Liberals if Churchill was made leader. That was enough for Lloyd George to decide, and at midday on March 1, 1932, he declared that Oswald Mosley was to replace him as Leader of the Liberal Party and as Prime Minister.

Upon hearing the news, Churchill narrowly avoided exploding into a drunken outburst fueled by several glasses of whiskey and hours of anxious, restless waiting at his home. As his son Randolph, who was present at the time, would later recall, "As I glanced back at him, Father looked ready to utterly explode. I thought little of what he would say to Lloyd George the next day. But after a tense moment, he started giggling, then burst into hysterics. This held for a full minute, and then he turned to me and said, 'Well, I suppose now's the time to concede and begin plotting my revenge from the shadows, isn't it?'" As his doctors observed in his medical files, Churchill's moderation through the preceding years had had a positive effect on his psychology too, giving him better self-control over himself and his actions. This proved to be a positive effect on his character during the preparations for Indian Home Rule, and eventually his management of the Empire's federalisation and his tenure as Prime Minister.

A few days later, Churchill gave what amounted to a concession speech in an interview published in The Times, accepting and recognising Mosley as Lloyd George's successor. He offered a conciliatory message, but at the same time highlighted his repertoire as a Member of Parliament for the previous years to continue pointing out his independence and credentials. That being said, as Mosley took to accepting his new role, he did offer acknowledgement of Churchill's record as a reformer and compromiser, a far cry from the strongly right-wing views of his early years, and for his part as one of the other major Liberal leaders, promised to keep him as Colonial Secretary in his Cabinet. Both leaders also projected a readiness and eagerness to begin the campaign, and noted that they were willing to work with each other for the best electoral result.

Mosley ran a tireless campaign through the spring, appearing at rallies for local candidates and making island-wide tours. A major focal point of his campaign was his appeal to working class communities, which he readily took advantage of by pivoting himself as a man of the people sympathetic to the plight of workers, and highlighted his work in the economic program that staved off further economic crisis. He also outlined his economic agenda as Prime Minister, which would include promotion of inter-Empire trade, nationalisation of some key industries and utilities, expansion of public works spending, and the expansion of old-age pensions to those aged 60 and above [5]. His highly expressive and captivating oratory also gave him a strong edge over the comparatively quiet campaigns of Baldwin and MacDonald.

These proved to be highly popular, and when voters took to the polls on May 26, 1932, this pivot had paid off immensely - the Liberals successfully expanded into constituencies previously held by Labour, though falling just short of an outright majority. Still, with Labour agreeing to retain the coalition until economic recovery was well under way, it was enough to solidify the incoming government's power. On the evening of May 31, 1932, David Lloyd George formally tendered his resignation as Leader of the Liberal Party, and vacated 10 Downing Street as its resident for the last time. The following day, Oswald Mosley was inaugurated as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

[1] This was before British political parties had leadership elections; at this time, leaders merely appointed their successors. However, since Lloyd George has such a hard time choosing between Churchill and Mosley to succeed him, it falls on him to rely on outside input, effectively turning this matter into the genesis for future party leadership elections.

[2] Keep in mind that this quote was Foch saying the Treaty was not harsh enough rather than too harsh, as Wehraboos and neo-Nazis believe for some reason.

[3] This is true; though he supported the war effort, Lloyd George had still supported appeasement and regretted his role in the Treaty of Versailles, which he saw in hindsight as being too punitive. He and Churchill split over this in the 1930s.

[4] This was true of Lloyd George too. He was a firm progressive in the Liberals when he was in government, and as Chancellor of the Exchequer implemented labour reforms that improved working conditions and wages.

[5] Many of the proposals here are derived from the post-Second World War Labour government's welfare state policies, though watered down and moderated to various extents.


End file.
